World's End Rhapsody
by slexenskee
Summary: Perhaps time travel isn't what it's all that cracked up to be. OR: Naruto inadvertently trains his younger self for the Chunin exam, and therein learns a lot more about himself than he ever really wanted to. CAS sequel.
1. SIREN

_I take it back. Someone inspired me to love sequels all over again. But __**NOTE**__ (and please, take note. I'm only saying this once because I hate having to write it slash copy paste this onto every chapter) the prologue that I put in the last chapter of CAS is the ending of CAS, but also the ending of this story, WER._

_Okay that might be confusing. So I'll say it again. This story is a COMPANION FIC to Cloud Age Symphony. Meaning, it doesn't have the same PLOT, but takes place in the same ALTERNATE REALITY. World's End Rhapsody and Cloud Age Symphony will have the SAME ENDING. Sorry if that still confuses you, just bear with me, and you'll understand at the end.

* * *

_

Namikaze Naruto, currently sleeping in one of Konoha's prominently large trees, snored loudly in a fit of his latest dreams, swatting at the air sleepily in the haze of his mindscape.

Above him, the sky was lit in the beginnings of dawn, the sun peeling over the mountain, kissing the tops before stretching into the navy blue sky.

Some fifty-eight feet below the sleeping blonde, Haruno Sakura lips pursed into a thin line as she pondered her strange teammate, and his equally strange whereabouts (or perhaps, not so strange, considering his occupation).

Naruto had been acting strange for months now. Ever since he returned from whatever Jiraiya had him doing for such an extended period of time. He scantly visited his apartment, and had immersed himself for indefinite amounts of time in near suicide missions. Tsunade nor Sakura could stop the blonde, Tsunade because the council was delighted at this new predicament, and Sakura because Naruto near refused to see here at any given point of the day. On the meager hours he spent back in his homeland, he usually trained, slept, or ate ramen. And when Sakura tried to con him into accepting a 'date', he only politely declined.

What else could the medic-nin do?

Obviously Naruto didn't want to be found. And if it was one thing that Naruto was good at, it was blending quietly into the background.

Sakura had never even noticed the loud boisterous blonde at the academy. Key words being_ loud_, and _boisterous_. Even when Naruto tried exponentially for attention, he was ignored like he wasn't even in existence. Over the years as a shinobi, Naruto only used his ease of being a nobody to his advantage.

Like now.

Sakura spent almost thirty-seven hours mulling about Konoha like a bloodhound after the scent of a killer. Naruto had certainly disappeared. Honestly, for a man that loud he really could disappear.

And now she found him, almost sixty feet into the sky, sleeping in a fir tree.

Sighing, the pink-haired medic-nin brushed strands of hair out from her eyes, beginning a trek up the tree, ready to confront Naruto about whatever issues he had with her and the rest of the world. A depressed Naruto was just ridiculous. She was talking about the annoying, peppy, and most importantly all around _cheerful _blonde she'd been on a team with for _years._

Walking up the tree, Sakura wondered if perhaps this was her being a failure teammate, not being attentive enough to a person she had believed she knew.

Maybe she didn't know Naruto at all?

"Naruto!" She yelled, making sure to hit the eardrum with such correct precision that he'd be hearing the fruits of her labor for days.

In his surprise, Naruto shot up quickly and almost fell face first to the dizzying drop below.

Sakura only placed her hands on her hips, canting them slightly. "Better?"

He only groaned in response, rolling over to the side.

Sakura frowned. "Naruto…"

Again, another groan, this one coming out like "Margghhh", which she supposed could be roughly translated to, "Get me some painkillers, woman."

Sakura pulled him over towards her, doing generic motions of checking his temperature and looking for other ailments. If the blonde was annoyed by this, the only display was the furrowing of his brows.

"Sakura-chan…I think I'm going to throw up."

No fever, no sickness. A definite lack of proper motor skills. She pried his eyes open and he yelped. Aversion to light.

"Do you have a hangover?" She asked forlornly, already knowing the answer.

As he shifted away from her, Sakura didn't know whether to be appalled or to laugh. Naruto, who never came into the hospital not to avoid her but because he simply didn't _need _to, Naruto, who could walk through Konoha in flu season while everyone around him dropped like flies, suffered from a hangover. The common illness that everyone faces. Or, the fact that he would rather hide up in a tree than face her to get the cure. Perhaps, they really weren't friends anymore, their friendship (or maybe there never really was one) lost in the waves of time and the life of a shinobi. With her working incredible hours on her shifts at the hospital and Naruto trying desperately to kill himself overworking missions.

Once she used her chakra to heal his hangover, she lashed out in another bout of yelling. "Where have you been, Naruto? I haven't seen you in months, and whenever I ask you to do something you just say you're busy and completely ignore me! I've tried giving you space, for almost a full _year _now. Whatever your problem with me is I suggest that you fix it. _Now_."

Naruto sighed, pulling himself up to rest his weight on his elbows. "I don't have a problem with you, Sakura-chan." He smiled sincerely.

Sakura wanted to pull her hair out. "Then what is the problem?"

"It's me." Naruto confessed, and the entire conversation made Sakura feel like he was breaking up with her or something. "Its not you, its me." He'd go on to say, _"And I want full custody of our child, and most of the house. You can keep the spare bathroom if you like, the one with the faucet that leaks all the time."_

Definitely a break up.

"Naruto…" She sputtered. "Are you breaking up with me? Are you breaking up our friendship?"

"What?" Naruto sat up, quickly, trying to forget the sheer vertigo which had yet to be cured, and the fact his stomach was leading a revolt against him. "No! I don't mean it like that!"

"Then what do you mean?" Sakura asked suspiciously, eying him carefully.

"I just mean that…" Naruto struggled for words. "That we…well me….I need space. What happened with Jiraiya—it really woke me up. You know I can't tell you, but I just…I'm not ready to face it, I'm not ready for this to end."

Thoroughly confused, Sakura only nodded her head.

"I just need some closure." Naruto sighed, dropping back onto the sturdy bark of the tree's limbs in a boneless heap of limbs and lemon peel hair.

Mimicking his sigh, Sakura swung her legs so that she sat on the branch with him. "Why don't we get you home, huh?"

"I guess…" The blonde rolled over until he was crouched, and grinned. "Race you to the bottom?"

Sakura smirked. "You're on!"

Sakura pushed off the branch with her expert chakra control, racing towards the incoming earth parallel to the tree's trunk. The jagged patterns on the bark flew past her into a swirl of lines, and she dropped her feet down to begin running down the trunk. She couldn't see Naruto anywhere, and grinning, she knew she would win this. The tack of her sandals echoed down the tree as she flew at break neck speed down the tree. So much for Naruto being some big-shot Junín, she was going to beat him hands down. But, she should give him some credit. He got back from a strenuous mission mere hours ago, had a hangover that was only cured for less than a minute, and had just been woken up.

But still.

Suddenly, Sakura saw his form spiraling down like a rock, gravity pulling him faster than she could run.

Shocked, Sakura sped up her pace to try to match Naruto's free fall.

What was the idiot doing? He must have pushed on the tree with chakra, before just letting himself fall with gravity. The fall would be dangerous from that height, and knowing Naruto with his unstable chakra control, he'd be dead as he hit the ground!

Of course, said blonde was half asleep as he spiraled down the drop.

Just inches before his head hit the ground, Naruto spun himself feet-first, using chakra to hit the ground with a soundless impact, not even a foot print as indication he had landed with such force.

As Sakura sprinted down the tree, running up to him seconds after he hit the ground, she looked ready to yell at him, eyes widened.

"What were you thinking, idiot?" She growled at him, combing her hair out of her eyes with her fingers.

Naruto shrugged, yawned sleepily and wedged a finger into his ear, and looked entirely too stupid. "Nothing."

Sakura groaned at his idiocy.

"Whatever," She decided that immaturity was the only correct method to handle him. "let's go."

"After your lead, my lady." He bowed with charisma, suave charm in his voice.

Sakura sent him the, "don't do that shit with me" look, before sauntering off in front of him. He wouldn't lie, the years had been good to her. But for some reason…Sakura was Sakura. It was hard to explain why exactly it felt to _wrong _to ever think of Sakura like that.

He followed her around Konoha without question, smiling contently at the bustling city that was sleepily beginning to awaken with the benign presence of the sun peeling over the mountains like a great peach. Sakura must be really worried, he thought, to have been looking for him for so long. He had always figured that with Sakura's long hours and his patterns of disappearance, she probably wouldn't notice his absence. It wasn't like they were even that good of friends until months after Sasuke's leaving. And even then, Naruto pondered if their friendship was simply Sakura's insecurity over losing her only teammate again, or if she had simply formed a bond with him because it was easier than forming one with an emotional invalid like Sai.

Or maybe, her intentions for friendship were simply innocent?

Sakura was about to make a left turn when Naruto stopped her. "Keep going forward."

"Huh?" Sakura blinked at him. "Naruto, I'm positive this is the way to your apartment."

"You're right." Naruto nodded.

Sakura was about to ask him what exactly he was playing then, when he explained to her.

"I moved."

Sakura's jaw dropped. "You _what_?"

Naruto shrugged. "I moved."

Sakura stared at him with both skeptical intentions, and this deep feeling of sorrow wallowing in her stomach. "You moved?" She echoed.

Naruto nodded. "Baa-chan made me. She said that I should move, and I was too lazy to say otherwise. It's not like I really liked my old apartment anyways. And this one smells nicer too."

Sakura sputtered. "Why didn't you tell me?" She mumbled, this lost look in her eyes.

"I—…" Naruto blinked at her. "I dunno…I was going to, but then I guess I just forgot to tell you."

Sakura was conflicted as to whether she should laugh at his forgetfulness or be saddened by the fact that telling her about his move was obviously not important enough to warrant remembering.

"Well, I suppose you should lead the way then." She said finally.

Naruto hummed in agreement, steering her in another direction entirely. A direction which, Sakura noted, lead to the more expensive housing zone of Konoha.

To say Sakura was surprised when she saw the towering apartment building, would be an understatement. It was _massive._ And not only large, but _clean_. The reception area actually had real chairs instead of plastic ones, with very tasteful paintings and long stretch couches with modern rugs with odd patterns on them. The floor was actually clean, and in fact, so shiny Sakura could see her reflection on them. Instead of dark peeling plaster walls, the room was enclosed with glass, letting her peer into the fashionable elevator hallway and the lounge room with stretch TV's.

"Hello, Naruto-san." The receptionist chirped from behind the desk.

Good lord, that lady must have breasts like watermelons, and, did she even remember his _name_?

Naruto only nodded, steering Sakura into the elevator shaft.

"Naruto…" She began slowly. "Where on Earth did you get the money for this?"

Naruto shrugged. "I get by."

Sakura blamed it mostly on the fact that he did a lot of missions, and only ate extremely dirt cheap ramen.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me." Sakura said awkwardly, as the elevator doors closed around them and Naruto pressed the button for floor eleven. The number glared back at her accusingly, mocking her, as if its stainless steel qualities were the exact embodiment of her useless ability as a friend. "I would have been gushing about this place for months if I lived here."

Naruto only smiled. "I guess. But I dunno…I don't really like it here."

"What?" Sakura gaped. "Why not? It's beautiful, its so modern and…new. People would kill to live here!"

"That's the thing though." Naruto shriveled his nose in distaste. "It doesn't fit me at all. It's a civilian building, there aren't any shinobi who live here. Konoha's becoming so…industrialized. You used to never see large skyscrapers like this one."

"It's only twenty floors." She chided him. "The hospitals almost forty!"

"But it's a _hospital._" Naruto emphasized. "They need the space. This," he gestured around him. "Is just a civilian with a lot of money who built an investment to make even more money."

Sakura sighed. Naruto was such a simple man. Well, if he'd rather live in a tree than live here he certainly should be. The elevator pinged softly, and slid soundlessly to reveal a sparkling, lavish hallway with doors to apartments. They passed a strange, quirky abstract statue that kind of resembled a duck and a fish with a wicker hat.

Naruto opened his, not even seemingly enthralled by the pristine carpeting, or the artwork.

Naruto's apartment, contrasting to the colorful and tasteful interior of the building, was bland, scantly furnished, and Spartan. There was only so much he could do to the interior, however, as the carpet was still lavish and plush beneath her feet, and even though his ratty couch still had its place among his living room, it was offset by the long windows and steel lining.

"I'm gonna hit the shower." He called over his shoulder. "Make yourself at home!"

"Easy for you to say." Sakura muttered, feeling out of place in his home that she'd never seen before.

She snooped around a bit, poking her head into the cupboards, noting the very blatant lack of silverware, cups, and plates, but the abundance of cup ramen noodles. For someone like Naruto, who left trash littering his floors, the apartment was strangely immaculate.

Not as if Naruto actually spent time to clean his house, but more with the air of someone who just simply didn't spend time at home, and therefore, had no mess to clean.

Sakura distractedly humored herself with outrageous reasons as to how exactly Naruto could get the money for this place.

Maybe he was a crack dealer in his spare time, and she laughed thinking of Naruto with a cigar on his lips yelling orders out to his mob, busting out a fake Italian accent and carrying himself like the leader of the mafia. Or maybe he had inherited it from his parents. Sakura knew he had found out who they were, but hadn't pressed the matter to learn their names. He could—and Sakura laughed aloud at this one—have become a strip teaser with his orioke no jutsu. In certainly sounded plausible with someone like Naruto, whose humor and ultimate lack of respect for woman had no boundaries. Sakura blamed Jiraiya for this one.

When Sakura opened a couple drawers, her dreams crashed into reality.

There was so much money—Sakura couldn't believe what she was seeing. How could Naruto even think to make this much? How on earth could he possibly even make this much money in his lifetime?

Sakura felt a rush enter her, heart beat fluttering in her chest as she pulled out several drawers, all with the same outcome.

She leaned onto the counter, pressing the faintly cool back of her hand to her heated forehead. She had to calm down. Naruto was…Naruto. There was no way he was involved in some sort of illegal business. But it was the only outcome that she could possibly think of for him to be carrying around so much money so languidly. Honestly! Had the blond heard of saving bonds? She shivered at her thoughts. What was Naruto doing…? Maybe he was involved with a shady character that reminded her sorely of Gatou from their mission to wave. Maybe her illegal-drug dealing Naruto fantasies weren't that far off from the truth.

"Sakura what—?"

Said blond toweled off his limp lemon colored hair with one hand, the other on shifting the loose t-shirt around his broad torso.

"What is this, Naruto?" She stepped closer. "If you're doing something illegal, you can tell me. We're friends. I understand—

"Whoa, slow down Sakura-chan." Naruto chuckled, rubbing his sunshine hair. "I'm not a mob boss or anything!"

"But Naruto," She said quietly. "There's just too much—I don't even think the _Sandaime _made that much money in his lifetime."

Naruto wanted to point out the Hokage's salary was shit, and it was unreasonably to compare him to a guy who was known to have refused pay for three years straight, but he refrained.

"Okay Sakura," Naruto caved, and pulled out a chair. "Sit down, this is going to be a long story."

Gulping, Sakura sat rigidly onto one of his bar stools. She looked so frightened of what she was going to hear that Naruto wanted to laugh aloud.

"Its nothing bad." Naruto smiled lightly. "Just…unbelievable."

"Well, let's hear you out then." Sakura cautiously sunk into the chair.

Naruto watched the sky line from his floor to ceiling window, smiling somberly as he did so. "As you probably know, Jiraiya has taught me everything he knew about seals. From meager things like turning leaves to grass or big things like the Shiki Fuuin." Naruto made a vague gesture to his stomach.

Sakura nodded slowly. "Right. I knew that."

"Well, of course he'd teach me some outrageous stuff. Theoretical stuff mostly. Like turning copper into gold—which a seal master can do, by the way, or you know, big things. Like time traveling."

"Those are possible?" Sakura blinked.

"Course." Naruto smiled. "Sealing is a very broad topic, Sakura-chan. And much of it is very undiscovered."

"At any rate," Naruto began again. "Jiraiya and I had discovered a way to use a worm hole to jump through small relapses in time. By doing so, I could essentially jump through time, and land in the past or future, depending on how the seal was set up."

"Naruto." Sakura began bluntly. "You don't expect me to believe that."

"Sakura." Naruto mimicked her. "If you never knew about Kyuubi, would you believe that a demon king could be sealed into a baby?"

Successfully cowed, Sakura said nothing.

"What does this have to do with the money?"

"I was getting to that!" Naruto harrumphed. "Anyways, so obviously there must be a reason why only I can travel through time. Its because I'm a Jinchuuriki. And not just any demon jailer, but the one of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Since Kyuubi has infinite chakra, by tapping into his reserves I can create the worm hole needed to jump through time."

Sakura's eyes widened in understanding. "So, countries must be hiring you out—

"To travel back in time, yes." Naruto's gaze hardened. "But it's a very dangerous topic, Sakura. Changing the past is a powerful way to rid enemies. Think about what countries would do if they learned of Konoha's new weapon. Essentially, I could wipe out people like Akatsuki before they even reach their first birthday."

"Naruto that's amazing!" Sakura jumped up. "That means you could kill Orochimaru too—

"Its not that simple, Sakura." Naruto sighed. "I'd successfully be destroying time and space as we know it. I'm no expert, I still don't now the mechanics of what my presence even does to change the world. Just by being there, and making small changes, I can influence what happens now. Even unknowingly. Therefore, I simply _can't _change anything."

"Oh." She drooped. "I see."

They lapsed into a poignant silence, as Sakura soaked in the information, the reason why Naruto always disappeared. It made more sense now, and while she was partially inclined to believe in this romanticized version of the world, she held her suspicions.

"So, since you're the only one who can do this," She began slowly. "I guess your clients pay you a lot of money then?"

Naruto nodded, grinning. "Yeah but most of the time, I do work for Tsunade. The only person who had ever paid me was a Daimyo from Kumo. And even then it was just to assassinate his to-be wife's former husband."

Sakura stared at the drawers. "Just one mission for all of that—?"

"Cool, huh?" Naruto grinned. "And when I die, its all probably going to you!"

Sakura blushed. "Naruto, don't talk like that—

"Naruto-san."

An ANBU appeared at the open window, effectively interrupting Sakura and Naruto's private conversation. If the ANBU had any input on the predicament he caught them in, he said nothing.

"A summon from Tsunade-sama." The man unhooked a scroll from his belt and tossed it, before leaning out the long window and disappearing.

Naruto groaned, turning to Sakura. "I'll see you later, then."

She nodded. "Ramen?"

Naruto looked uncomfortable, and for a moment, Sakura wondered if they just backtracked. "If…if I can."

Sakura only smiled helplessly, a placated, but still hopeless look on her face. Naruto certainly had adventures, that was for certain—experiences she could probably hardly believe. But he had returned…right? It was over… right?

...

...

...

"What's up, Baa-chan?"

"Shut up, brat." The old woman scribbled madly with her pen, onto a sheet of paper.

Naruto peered curiously. "My mission?"

"Sort of." Tsunade rubbed her temples. "Naruto…we have a problem."

Standing rigid, the blonde listened intently.

"We've received a very dire report from Suna." Tsunade began, pacing around the small spot of her office near the window. "Apparently, even with the demon gone from Gaara, his seal is still bothering him. We've received a report of the Kazekage falling gravely ill. The medics believe it to be a sever infection from a viral disease. In actuality, the seal is burning through his mindscape his body coping with its deadly properties by acting like it's a disease, eventually his body will reject the malfunctioned seal, causing a lapse from body to brain, eventually leading severing the connection entirely and resulting in coma, and then death."

"What?" Naruto slammed his hands onto the table. "Why didn't anyone inform me of this? As a certified sealer, I have a right to know—

Tsunade waved him off. "We didn't inform you because there is nothing you can do about it."

"W-What…?"

"The seal can't be fixed." Tsunade explained, knowing it was better to be frank with the boy. Naruto was very attached to Gaara, the only other Jinchuuriki that Naruto had ever known, and as such, one of his best friends. "As you probably know, there is a reason as to why demons are sealed into newborn children. The child's chakra pathways are still growing and malleable, and the demons chakra will be able to adapt the chakra ways, causing the baby to be able to successfully house the demon. The older the child becomes, the less chances of survival the child has."

"So essentially…" Naruto trailed off, gripping his hands tighter. "Your saying that I can't do anything anymore. Gaara's much too old know, and anything I do to the seal will destroy his chakra ways, and kill him too."

"No."

Naruto looked up.

"Now you can do something." The Hokage said seriously. "That's why I called you in here. Obviously it's a moot point to help Gaara…now. But, in the past…"

Naruto's eyes widened in realization. "Your saying I should travel to the day of Gaara's sealing and fix the seal myself—

"Not necessarily."

"Then what?"

The Godaime laid out a timeline on the desk—the scribbled paper actually turned out to be useful after all—that had certain days and events charted.

The first was Naruto's sealing, then Gaara's.

After were key events, but most had meant little or no value to him.

"Here," Tsunade pointed. "This is the event in which you and Gaara have your first fight, during the sound invasion."

"I remember," he crossed his arms. "What about it?"

"This is where Gaara's seal cracked." Tsunade pulled out a diagram of the Kazekage's seal, both before and after this particular event. "Obviously Gaara's seal doesn't hold a candle to the Yondaime's work, but it still worked properly before."

She showed him the second picture, this one with a brutal crack through the seal.

"After Sasuke successfully landed a hit on Gaara, his mindscape cracked, and with it a good chunk in the seal."

"If that's true," Naruto peered at the designs. "Than why hadn't anyone noticed it before? Certainly someone would have figured out when there was a _gaping _hole in his seal."

"Idiot!" Tsunade slapped him upside the head. "It was the Sound invasion! Suna probably was too busy wiping its ass after we backhanded them and suffering without a Kage to notice that its Jinchuuriki had a problem with its seal. According to my reports, Gaara wasn't very well liked back then. Do you think anyone would notice, let alone care?"

Naruto snapped his mouth shut, subdued.

"You can at least aim for an area when you time travel, right?"

Tsunade questioned him. "It's not like you blindly free fall…" And then she thought back on her teammate, and his considerate planning and caution he'd retained for all his life (or, lackthereof) "…. is it?"

"Well," Naruto scratched his head. "The workings are hard to explain, but the gist is that I can aim for certain windows in time, the worst I've been off by is a couple months give or take. Once I'm there I use Jiraiya's tracking seal as an anchor in time, that way, I always jump to that very same moment. Of course, I have an anchor in this time too, that way I always get back."

"Good." Tsunade slammed another round of paperwork onto her desk with a sigh. "You leave tomorrow."

"What?" Naruto sputtered. "But I just—

"Normally I'd let you have a month to get recuperated. But honestly, we're running out of time. Gaara has maybe a year, before his brain gives out and we lose him. Time is of the essence, understand?"

Naruto nodded. "I understand."

"Now out of my office! I have work to do!"

...

XXX

...

"Say what?" Uzumaki Naruto roared at his sensei.

Said sensei flipped a page in his outrageously pornographic orange book. "Well," He said conversationally, "It was your fault that the mission took so long. If you hadn't spilt all the paint onto the floor we would have been done by noon."

"Yeah, Naruto." Grumbled Haruno Sakura, fisting one hand at his face while the other tenderly combed her once styled hair turned abomination.

Sasuke, the last member of the three-man Gennin team only quickened his pace to his home, the entirety of his shirt splotched with purple paint.

Naruto, in his defense, rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Accidents! Accidents!" He smiled.

"An _accident _won't fix my hair, dumbass!" Sakura punched the blonde square in the face, watching with cynical satisfaction as the blonde flopped onto the ground.

"Well, the peanut gallery has spoken." Sighed Kakashi sentimentally. "We'll see you tomorrow!"

With that, his enigmatic Sensei whisked his other two teammates behind a row of high picket fences, and Naruto was left alone to sulk, behind him a mass of purple paint flooded through the street like a massive slug on siege.

He turned around forlornly, bucket and mop in hand.

"That's not fair!" He frowned to himself. "Stupid Sakura-chan, Stupid Sasuke-teme, stupid Kakashi-sensei!"

The mop, in reality, didn't do much to help him. In fact, if anything, it spread the paint more and gave it a pasty watery color, and spread the purple substance around much fast than its snail-pace.

Naruto mulled the idea of creating some hundred Kage Bunshin to clean up the mess for him, but then realized that there was only one mop.

He was about to call it quits when suddenly, the ground beneath him shook uncontrollably, and he lost his balance, landing butt first in the outrageous purple paint.

With a groan, he stood up, swatting off the abnormally violet paint before realizing it was a moot point. Sakura would have laughed and called this an extreme fashion faux-pas, the young Gennin already made fun of him for wearing orange, and even Naruto knew that orange and violet were such a clash! (especially for ninja standards, where most people's wardrobes included black, black, and black) Naruto was about to whine aloud about how terrible this whole day was going—Sasuke showed him up _again_ by painting his section first, Sakura ignored him completely, and then he spilt his paint and made a fool out of himself in front of Sakura-chan!—when he remembered the off-the-scale chakra explosion.

"I wonder what that was…" Naruto muttered to himself.

Suddenly, a man stepped out of the bushes, muttering to himself about a seal and about his aching hangover.

"Gah!" Naruto whipped out a kunai. "Enemy ninja!"

The man—a decently tall man of about six-one with a mop of sunshine yellow hair and blue eyes, dressed in the generic drab ninja clothing that consisted of black, black, and black—once noticing his presence, had a strange look in his eye.

"Yo, enemy shinobi!" Naruto roared at him. "Brandish your weapons! I won't let Konoha go down without a fight!"

The man only blinked once, twice, three times at him, this unnatural unwavering blank face not fading.

"Did you hear me, enemy?"

Whatever strange feeling the man had, he shook off. "Idiot, look at my hitai-ate!"

Naruto blinked, pulling out of his outlandish and particularly uneven taijutsu stance and dropped his hands to his sides. "Oh…oops."

"Stupid boy." The elder shinobi grumbled, looking rather frazzled and rushed as he stalked past him with hasty steps.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted behind him, anger flaring as he was reminded of all the times shinobi had brushed him off as useless in the past. "I'm not stupid, you asshole!" His face flushed, and, god dammit, he _would not_ get emotional about this— "I'm Konoha's number one most amazing ninja!"

The man stopped short.

Naruto ran up to him, ready to challenge him to a one on one fight (mainly because he hadn't thought of the odds of him winning yet, only of the fact that if he did win he could rub it in Sasuke's face and make Sakura-chan swoon all over him!) when he noticed the glint in the man's eyes. Naruto remembered seeing it in Sandaime's eyes as he gazed upon Konoha, this sad mixture of reminiscence and somber essence. Subdued, the boy stepped back. Whenever he asked the old man what he thought about when he got that look, Sarutobi replied that he was thinking of his past mistakes.

"Number one most amazing ninja, huh?" The man grinned softly, but wasn't looking at him, fixated on Hokage Mountain as if he was recalling something from a long time ago. His bad mood was lost in translation. "Really?"

"Yeah!" Naruto grinned. "Watch this!"

And suddenly—

"ORIOKE NO JUTSU!"

—very anticlimactically, the man had no reaction.

Stumped, Naruto frowned. "Hey…you didn't roll on the floor with a nosebleed…"

"Let's just say I have some experience with that technique." The elder man smiled. "Anyways, why don't I teach you something cool, huh?"

"Cool?" Naruto sniffed skeptically. "Who are you, anyways?"

"I'm…" The man with lemon colored hair stopped short. "Furu. …Call me Furu. I'm an elite Jounin and sealing master. And for a while, I was even ANBU!"

"No way!" The twelve-year old boy yelped, before proceeding to degrade into a sparkling heap as his susceptible young mind imagined an ultra-cool muscled guy with cute chicks hanging off of him, and a kick-ass sword and some really, really, awesome tattoos. "That's so amazing!"

"Yeah!" Furu smiled back at him, unaware of the young boy's fantasies of grandeur. "Anyways, I gotta go report to the Hokage. Meet me at Training Ground twenty-eight at seven sharp!"

"Seven? In the _morning_?" Naruto groaned, clearly ecstatic. "That's too early!"

As he watched the Jounin leap into the air gracefully, he frowned. "Furu? Doesn't that mean old fox? What kind of name is that?"

* * *

_fanfiction killed all my scene-skip lines. so now I have to do them ALL OVER. wth. anyway, x's still mean time skips. _


	2. Fujisawa Loser

_hey, its summer. chill. _

_idk, i googled, and it said that furu meant old fox. whether it does or not, i really dont care. it sounds cool._If nothing else, the unmistakable handwriting of the signature was enough to give the story some credibility.

* * *

Sarutobi sat upon his newly acquainted Hokage chair—he had bought a new one, this one with a _reclining _back and a _foot rest_—and reread the scroll in front of him with patient eyes that could only be made from tedious amounts of paperwork. Said paperwork was now littering his desk, and stacked near the corners. Alas, why had he signed up for this job, again?

The signature at the bottom of the paper was most definitely his young wayward student's.

Tsunade had the signature of a drunken man who had stumbled out of a bar with a morally loose women who had the words "small town girl" tattooed on her breasts, pretending to be a rock star, signing the walls and people's shirts as he went in his inebriated stupor. Hiruzen would never be able to find another one like it, nor would he be able to find someone who could replicate it. Jiraiya had tried, countless times, but to no avail.

Seeing it now, tapered at the bottom of the most _unbelievable _idiocy/load of bullshit he had ever read only made him doubt this more.

"Well, I'll admit the signature is real," He sighed. "But anyone who sees Tsunade drunk could easily get her to do this."

Naruto sighed. He had hoped that perhaps he could go in and out of the village, and not have to reveal himself to anyone.

Obviously, the Sandaime was much more perceptive than Naruto remembered him to be.

"No fooling you, huh old man?" Naruto groaned.

When he unveiled the genjutsu hiding his whiskers, Sarutobi only stared with as skeptical eye. Not in the, "is this real?" but in the, "you've got to be shitting me. You think I'm stupid?" look.

And then, he poked him.

Naruto wasn't sure exactly how to take that.

"Not a genjutsu," Sandaime mused, and Naruto supposed whatever he had done was some ancient trick that disperses disguises that only ultra-cool Hokage like the Sandaime know.

"Believe me yet?" He scratched his head. He had gone through a lot of missions like this recently, and his patience and tolerance seemed to build up with each idiot who asked him the same questions. Sometimes, he just wished he could bring them to the future with him, and _then _they could ask him those stupid questions.

Sandaime tapped his chin. "I'll send a message back to Tsunade, and then we'll see how real this is. "

The way he said 'Tsunade' made Naruto feel like the old man was particularly amused with the entirety of this. But, being quite used to it, Naruto only sighed and took the offered scroll, noting the Hokage seal Sarutobi had placed upon it. If anything, he would just go back and get Tsunade to write the most kick ass letter involving many of Sandaime's most well kept secrets (perhaps, the fact that he has the whole collection of Icha Icha in the supposed sacred bookcase of Hokage scrolls?) and maybe persuade him then.

"Alright." But he only nodded.

"See ya later, old man." He waved, as he exited.

"Goodbye, Naruto." Sandaime smiled, as if he was indulging him.

When Naruto had made his way past the winding stair cases filled with secretaries bustling past him in rushed hurried tones and guards lounging around the water coolers, and into the bursting Konoha sun on the street below, did he finally release his contented face to reveal an annoyed grumble. Without much merit, he kicked a stone into a trash can, reveling in the pang it made.

"No one is ever going to take me seriously," He frowned, meandering to the days where he was just a brat who would do anything for people to see him, anything to _be _someone.

He could so clearly remember trying hard to impress Kakashi-sensei, trying to be as good as Sasuke but it just seemed like he couldn't do it. Like there was something wrong with him. Like he was born a defect. He was angered; he was an orphan, who knew who his parents were? Sasuke came from a lineage filled with great ninja; even his exiled older brother was super strong! Naruto would always be the nobody compared to him (obviously now he knew it was totally untrue, Sasuke actually not holding a candle to Naruto's prestigious lineage from the Yondaime)

But then, he blinked in surprise.

Who said that it had to go that way?

Who conducted the wavering between the past, present, and future?

And then he grinned.

Him, of course.

With that, Naruto spun a one-eighty from his direction to a deserted training ground to set up his seal, and instead set course to the one place that a dejected, solemn, and overall lonely twelve-year old Gennin Naruto would be; Ichiraku.

The smell of ramen spiked his nose long before he even saw the smoke rising from the stall's kitchen. For some reason, Naruto always knew exactly the shades of smells that Ichiraku's ramen had. The scent was more to distinct to him than any other, and Naruto doubted that it was simply because of the long hours he spent at the shop, but maybe because of the fox dwelling inside of him.

Noticing his own spiky blond locks from behind the shades, Naruto plopped down beside his younger self.

"What's wrong, kid?" He grinned. The novelty of sitting next to his younger self had washed off long before.

Uzumaki Naruto blinked in surprise. "Furu-sensei?"

"Yep." Furu grinned. "I thought I would be out of town for a little while longer, but I had to stop by my favorite place in the whole world!"

He gave Ichiraku a thumbs up, but the man was shy to return it. If Furu wasn't under his genjutsu, the man would have probably recognized him and been more enthusiastic…but that was a moot point to think about.

He noted his own dejected face.

"What's wrong?" He feigned confusion.

Naruto sighed. "Nothing. I'm just so mad! Why does Kakashi-sensei think Sasuke's so much better? I bet it's 'cause he's an Uchiha. It's not fair."

"Uchiha aren't as great as you think." He intoned with foreshadowing. However, Naruto didn't understand enough to notice. "So what happened?"

"I tried to help Sakura-chan carry her groceries." Naruto blew a raspberry, leaning on his hands, elbows propped on the counter. "But instead I spilt them all. I tried to pick them all up, but they were cans! Some of them spilt, and Sakura-chan got really mad. And Sasuke called me an idiot."

Furu could hazily remember something unpleasantly embarrassing like that happening.

"Ah, well." He smiled. "You're youth. You make mistakes. No need to be so down about it."

"I know!" Naruto groaned. "But before that, Sasuke beat me when we were training! And Kakashi-sensei was saying how much of a good job he did…and I don't know…it just…"

Naruto trailed off, pointedly refusing to say anything else.

Noticing himself become tight lipped, he decided it was about time he taught the boy _something._ Obviously the way he was going now would only tumble him even more to beg for attention. Ultimately leading to the Chuunin Exams, and then Sasuke's leaving, in which he'd chase after the Uchiha so strongly, that the hurt of the rejected friendship would leave him scarred.

Well obviously he got over it…but it wasn't a process he'd like to repeat.

"Why don't I teach you something cool?"

Naruto gaped at him in some sort of godly admiration. "_Really_?!"

"Sure." He shrugged nonchalantly. "This Kakashi figure seems pretty lazy to me."

Naruto was in the midst of chopping off almost a span of ten years from his lifetime from his hyperventilation, before Furu slammed some money onto the table and beckoned him to follow.

"Let's find a training ground then."

There located spot was ravaged from what seemed to be Gekkou Hayate and perhaps Sarutobi Asuma some hours ago, if the scrapes against the wood resembling sword slashes, and the smudged patches of dirt where the grass was uprooted from blasts of wind were any sort of indication. Furu grinned when he saw Naruto peer around the training grounds in something akin to wonder. Maybe he could be able to tell a battle from imprints on the grounds sooner if he trained his younger self.

"What is that?" Naruto crouched down near a gruesome slash embedded into the Earth like a gash of craggy rock.

Furu shrugged. "Probably an A-rank Fuuton Jutsu."

"Cool," Naruto breathed. "Can I learn that?!"

He gave a noncommittal string of noises that came out more like, "eh", before noting the lake some meters off.

Motioning for Naruto to come closer, they stood on the edge of the lake.

"Now," He began in his greatest teaching voice he could muster. "If I can teach you anything, you'll have to do some exercises."

Upon the word "exercises", Naruto groaned, as if he had heard Kakashi-sensei say it so many times that it was associated with, "boring".

"And shut up before you start whining!" He snarled, slapping the boy with a scroll in his pocket in an ultimately Jiraiya looking way. Subdued, Naruto folded his arms. "Exercises are boring as shit. Everyone knows that. Why do people do them? To get better."

Reading Naruto's face like a book (or maybe it was simply because it _was_ him, and therefore he could read himself so easily) he knew that everything he was saying was going in one ear and out the other.

Annoyed, Furu knew the only way he would learn was if he gave Naruto some motivation.

"With chakra exercise, you can do…" Turning towards the calm lake, hands flying through seals, he shouted, "Suiton: Suijinheki!"

The shore of the lake receded until the fish flopped around on the dried lake bed, the water gushed into a symmetrical wall of liquid, about twenty feet tall and perfectly still, not one drop of water spilling down.

Impressed beyond belief, Naruto's face split into determination.

"Okay Furu-sensei!" He shouted. "Tell me what I have to do to do that!"

Satisfied, Furu dropped the wall carefully back into the lake, the water level rising to its proper height.

"Tree exercises, for one." He mused. "And then water-walking—

From the way Naruto stared blankly at him, the wave mission hadn't occurred yet.

Sighing, Furu plopped to the ground. This would be a long night.

"Alright, push your chakra into your feet, and try walking up the tree."

Surprised at such a request, but so determined to succeed, Naruto scrunched his face, before slamming his feet into the tree. The reaction was enough to send Furu into bouts of laughter. Who knew watching your younger self could be so freakishly hilarious. Naruto frowned at him in embarrassment, the cracked and splintered footprints on the tree's trunk were like dinosaur tracks.

"Try it slower!" He called through his mirth. "And your using too much chakra! You need precise amounts, don't just squash it all into your feet."

After twenty minutes, Naruto seemed to be getting the hang of it.

Thoroughly amused, Furu was beginning to think that maybe this was a better idea than he thought it was. Maybe if he wasn't such an idiot on the wave mission, things wouldn't have taken such a terrible turn. But also, by changing such events, would that mean that…he wouldn't meet Haku? Or unleash the Kyuubi and find his Nindou?

He frowned at the thought.

"Hey Furu-sensei!" Naruto called from about a quarter up the tree. "How can I do this any faster?!"

He hummed in thought. "You can make Kage Bunshin, right?"

"Yeah!" Naruto shouted.

"Make some, then! And have them do the same exercise you are!"

Complying, four other whining and complaining Naruto's came to existence.

"How'd you make the water wall so big?" Naruto grinned stupidly, as he took another step. "That was so cool!"

His younger self was so easily impressed.

He smiled. "You don't have to make the wall so large. Actually, its impractical to do so. You're better off keeping it at a smaller height, enough to stop a Katon Jutsu, so that you can summon the water from the atmosphere, and don't need a lake to—

But Naruto probably wasn't listening, too busy laughing contentedly as he took faster steps, hands outstretched like a young child pretending to fly, his clones didn't seem to be doing to bad, either.

His giddy appearance, and his excitement about tree walking reminded Furu of Sakura's impressive chakra control.

Just this morning the two of them were showing excellent displays of chakra control, Naruto didn't know to many people who could sprint down a tree the way Sakura did. So soundless and effortlessly, the true imprint of being a medic-nin with her perfect control and precise chakra. Of course, he didn't know too many people who could fall and land off a sixty foot tree without making an imprint or sound, either.

Remembering Sakura, and his present, he decided he'd take his leave.

"Naruto!" He called. "I'm going to be leaving now! Keep practicing those exercises, okay? And if you complete the tree walking, move on to water walking, okay?"

Naruto made a vague noise of agreement around his laughter, and Furu took his chance to whisk away to a denser part of the forest, where he could use the seal in peace.

--

--x—

--

"Sarutobi-sensei was always too smart for his own good." Tsunade grumbled. "And kind. It was his downfall in the end, really."

Naruto furrowed his brows. It wasn't usually like Tsunade to speak of her beloved Sensei's death. In fact, it wasn't like her to speak of death, at all. People like Sarutobi, Dan, and Nawaki became taboo to the Godaime, and it was a line that Naruto always made a point to never cross. Of course, Tsunade crossed this all the time when she was piss ass drunk. Like…now.

She sloppily writes another letter, Naruto doesn't bother to peak, already knowing that it probably contains one of Sarutobi's deepest darkest secrets that Naruto is probably better of not knowing.

"Give this to the old man." Tsunade slurs, between swiping the bottle from its resting place on the corner of her desk, already are there droplets from sloppy drinking.

He only nods.

Naruto isn't one to deal with Tsunade when she's drunk.

"And by the way," She calls after him, and for a moment Naruto thinks she may be sober, but he takes a look at her glazed eyes and shakes his head. "Sakura's been wondering where you are, take her out to ramen, would ya?"

He dismissively waved her off, making a quick exit via window.

The streets of Konoha are marginally crowded, with a mixture of the young civilian crowd mulling about in the end of summer beginning of fall heat without much to do but cause mischief, and the older civilian crowd with stern faces and grim set lines on their faces, rushing to their next destination. The shinobi population tended to stay three feet within the shadows, and were hardly noticeable to the untrained eye.

Sakura is one of the few shinobi that are so conspicuous, they simply blend into the normal populace because slinking around in the shadows is a moot point (especially for one with pink hair).

She stood on the corner of a bustling street, peering over at a stall of red tomatoes, children running amuck around her with brightly colored balloons.

But to Naruto, Sakura was always picture perfect.

"Sakura-chan!" He waved her down.

She looked up, startled. Her eyes flashed as if she remembered their latest conversation, before she gave him a distant smile. "Naruto." She greeted.

If Naruto was subdued by her less-than-vigor greeting, he didn't show it.

"Want to get some ramen with me?" He flashed her a quirky grin.

Sakura, rolling her eyes, lead him in the opposite direction of Ichiraku. "No, today we're going to a tea house that I've been dying to try."

"Wha—" He sputtered. "But—…Ramen—"

Irritated, she dragged him along.

--

--x--(meanwhile)

--

Training ground number thirty-eight was made up of a multitude of massive puddles, stagnant and buzzing with all kinds of insects that Sakura would rather not know. Perhaps it was due to the water that must have been there for days, or its inconvenient placing near the Forest of Death, that buzzed about with so many odd insects. It was near poetic injustice that she had to suffer through this.

The Gennin cringed at the sight of them, the murky water turning the once lush training ground a shallow ocean.

"Sensei," She whined pitifully. "Do we have to?"

Kakashi, much to her chagrin, seemed nonplussed. "Well, we shinobi have to share the grounds with everyone else. I'd assume someone was practicing a water jutsu from the looks of it."

Naruto blinked. "Like Suijinheki?"

"Oh, you know what that is?" Came the surprised answer.

" 'Course I know!" The blond grinned. "Doesn't everyone?"

Sakura gave a meek squawk of indignant displeasure.

Sasuke growled.

"Not really," Their sensei smiled amusedly. "It's not very common for Gennin to know such skilled techniques."

"Maybe I'm just skilled!" Naruto puffed his chest, and Sakura scoffed at his egotistical attitude.

"Maybe." Kakashi hummed, as if he didn't really believe that. "But anyways, why don't we do some sparring. Sakura?"

The pink-haired Gennin gave a bold step…backwards.

"Now way Kakashi-sensei!" She hysterically pointed her finger at a bug that flew past her nose. "There's disgusting _crap _in there."

"Well those pools have been there for a while, what'd you expect?" Kakashi scratched the back of his head with some sort of quasi-mocking gesture.

She only mumbled, annoyed, in response, shifting her weight from one to the other with a look of discontent on her face. Sasuke, noting the fact that his only female teammate (and equally annoying as his blond teammate) wasn't going to making a move towards the muddy, dirty, mosquito infested waters, decided that it would be better for the team dynamic if he simply sparred with Naruto, as usual. Because, as usual, Sakura wimped out.

"I'll go." He stepped forward, fire crackling in his eyes.

Contrary to the intense mood he had set, Naruto picked his ear. "Eh?"

"Dobe." Sasuke hissed. "Let's _spar._"

Naruto made a vague noise of interest.

"Well there's some enthusiasm." Kakashi flipped a page in his ever present book. Sakura fidgeted beside him.

Growling in something akin to frustration, Sasuke hurled Naruto into the training ground, the blond sputtering in surprise as he turned in the air and pushed off of Sasuke, before both of them went hurdling into the sludge.

Coughing, he wheezed, "What the hell was that?"

Sasuke obviously wasn't going to answer him, as the Uchiha pulled kunai from his thigh pouch and struck eight of them into Naruto's chest, clouds of smoke revealing a log skewered with them. In a near feral like gesture, the Uchiha crouched, watching the unmoving browned water for any signs of his blond teammate. When bubbles surfaced, his immediate reaction was to throw his weapons at them.

Instead of a blond Gennin yowling in pain, and explosion tag detonated inches from his face, and he jumped into the pool of mud-water to escape the blast.

Sasuke cringed at the brown that covered his shins and ankles.

Naruto took the opportunity to slam into his teammate, reaction and taijutsu off, but he was able to successfully push Sasuke backwards. In return, the Uchiha used Naruto's momentum to carry the both of them in the same direction, before bending his back in an attempt to dunk both him and Naruto under the water. Whether this tactic would result in both of them spewing out chunks of mud and bugs, or if he'd be able to recover in time to have the winning blow was up to digression.

Neither of those plans happened.

While Sasuke dunked into the stagnant pool of thick, muddy water, Naruto used his new found techniques to plant himself upright on the water's surface.

The blond smirked triumphantly as the Uchiha came up gasping for breath, wiping at his eyes to fling the mud out of them.

"Very good, Naruto!" Kakashi congratulated, genuinely surprised.

Naruto only chuckled.

"When did you learn water walking?" His sensei inquired. "I don't recall teaching you guys this skill yet."

"Oh, you know," Naruto grinned, whiskers enhancing this to make an all together fox-ish and sly visage. "Just around."

Skeptically, the silver-haired Jounin only hummed in agreement. Inwardly, he wondered which Jounin had taught Naruto the skill, and also, which Jounin _would._ He was keenly aware of how little the numbers of people who cared for Naruto were compared to those who didn't.

"At any rate, I'm very surprised." Kakashi tutted. "Very good work."

Naruto smiled, basking in his pride.

Behind him, Sasuke irately sloshed off the mud from his arms, growling and pushing past the grinning blond. Naruto was about to taunt the Uchiha, when he noticed his dry teammate (and the one who chickened out) cooing over his mud slicked hair, trying to brush it back when Sasuke slapped her hands away. Naruto's pleasant smile turned into a frown when he noticed the way Sakura doted on her teammate. Why didn't she ever do that with him?

The bittersweet of his battle left him with a sour taste in his mouth, as he loitered around until he made his way to Ichiraku.

He kicked a can in his frustration, before plopping into a bar stool at Ichiraku sullenly.

Why did Sakura only seem to care for Sasuke?

Why didn't she even congratulate him?

"It was Sasuke who ate mud, anyways." He frowned petulantly.

"You look all sad today, Naruto!"

Said blonde's day brightened incredibly as he noticed the taller figure who had sat next to him.

"Furu-sensei!" He grinned.

The other blond—well, his hair was dulled a bit (Naruto didn't know this was because of a genjutsu) to resemble murky golden waters, like more of a light brunette—smiled in response. Naruto noticed that it seemed a lot like the kind of smile that lit up in Kakashi-sensei's eyes. As if Furu was humoring him with his good nature. Absentmindedly, beneath his initial joy at seeing the other man, he wondered what Furu was hiding behind his smile.

"Did something happen?" The man asked, concerned.

Naruto shrugged feebly in response. "Nothing really…I used that cool water trick you taught me to beat Sasuke! But then, Sakura-chan didn't even care…she only cared about Sasuke-teme."

Furu watched him with empathetic eyes, and Naruto wondered what he was thinking.

Maybe Furu thought he was stupid. Naruto was a ninja, after all. Ninja were supposed to be cool and unemotional, not hung over a girl with pink hair who didn't even like them back!

In reality, Furu was contemplating his final moments in his own time, and Sakura's concerned face.

_She clasped her cup with her small, lithe fingers. Her reflection refracted in the tea's surface, showing choppy images obscured by the movement of the water._

"_I'm just worried, is all." She sighed, verdant eyes bright and shiny like mirrors, glossed by a sheen of wetness._

_Naruto averted his eyes in response. "You don't need to be worried…"_

"_This time travel business just seems so…scary." She explained, wobbly. "Don't you ever feel uncomfortable?"_

_Like now, the blond thought sourly. "At times," He ended up saying._

"_I care for you Naruto," Blades of green grass touched the blue sky. "And I don't want this—_

"Is it bad for a ninja to like girls?"

"Huh?" Furu blinked.

"Girls." Naruto elaborated, pink tinged his whiskers cheeks. "Is it bad for a ninja to like girls? Instead of worrying about…well, ninja stuff?"

Furu almost laughed, but refrained, knowing how it would make his younger self feel. "It's natural. Ninja are human too, you know. You're going through a time when a lot of your thoughts are centered around girls."

"I guess," Naruto frowned noncommittally, slurping his noodles. He must have gotten them when Furu had dozed off.

And then, he brightened. "But ninja stuff like water walking is cool, too."

Speaking of water walking…

"I said that I'd teach you that Suiton jutsu after you finished water walking, didn't I?" Furu mused aloud, rubbing his chin in mock thought.

"Yeah!" Naruto jumped out from his seat. "I spent the _whole _three days you were gone practicing water walking so I could learn!"

Furu watched his younger self, humor dancing in his identical sky blue eyes. Even at twelve, he could train all night and wake up with complete chakra reserves. The fox was useful after all.

"Well come on," Furu beckoned, beginning to walk over to training ground thirty-nine. "I know just the place."

* * *

_let's have some fun this beat is sick... I wanna take a ride on your disco stick XD come on..its three in the morning.._


	3. Blackout

_People don't seem to understand... A lot of you guys are mad at me for making Naruto so out of character from his original, annoying, loud and moronic self. Let's fact it, many times I wish that Naruto could just get kicked in the head throughout the series because sometimes I can't stand his stupidity. _

_But since this is fanfiction, he won't be like that. But I'm not just changing him without explanation. The explanation is in front of you; Naruto lived his life without ever knowing the past, he lived for the future (especially in the manga/anime). Now, through time traveling he's found everything he's missing. If you've ever lost a parent, you know how hard it is to let them go, especially when you have the choice to let them go or to stay with them. Its enough to make anyone depressing. That's why he's so...mellow. _

"He's dangerous..."

Quiet voices echoed into deep murmurs against the Hokage tower's corridors.

"But it's not like—"

"—afraid its not your decision, Tsunade-hime—"

"—the council—"

And then, a bang.

"The council can suck my—"

The first voice again, with shock; "_Tsunade-hime!"_

"Well I don't give a shit what you and your council think, neither did the Sandaime, or the Yondaime. All you ever do is pull bullshit ideas out of your asses all day and think they're worth my time—"

As Sakura moved closer, the sentences stopped overlapping like choppy unclear waves against a dark sea, and into actual literate sentences. She noted two things from the bits she heard.

One; they were inevitably talking about Naruto. The council was never so bold as to confront Tsunade on anything as much as they did her teammate, and Tsunade usually never rose to such ire.

And two; she was drunk.

The woman paused outside the door, deciding that it wasn't her pace to eavesdrop (even though it was hard not to, seeing as the open door did nothing to keep the voices in) nor to interrupt. As much as she'd like to. Naruto held a dear part of her heart—not the romantic part, as much as he would have wanted many years ago—and it hurt to see that many people still hadn't gotten past their hatred for the beast inside him.

An elder woman huffed, and stepped outside, a just as wrinkly man accompanying her.

They sniffed as they walked past her, and Sakura, miffed beyond belief, glared daggers as they made their way down the hall. She'd never liked them very much, all stuffy and moronic, never seeing past their goals. Or perhaps, that was the problem. They thought too much for the greater good of Konoha and not for the individuals.

And more importantly, they depended on Naruto to carry their missions, even though they despised him.

Growling, she pushed herself into the Hokage's office, that was rather clean considering its usual pigsty-esque layout.

Tsunade leaned into her chair, looking ridiculously sullen for such a drunken person. Her brows were furrowed, and for once, Sakura could see past the Genjutsu that masked her Sensei's age, and she looked almost as old as she was. Her hair was limp, as if she hadn't recently combed it, and the sake next to her looked dreadfully empty.

"Shishou?" She asked tentatively.

Tsunade hummed in response, but the answer could have simply been a grunt.

Her eyes wavered back to the hallway, where she assumed the two elders were still tottering along. "What was that about?" She tried to word tactfully, but it didn't seem to have come out right.

Luckily, Tsunade was too inebriated to notice.

"They don't want Naruto to be Jounin." She hiccuped sorrowfully.

Sakura blinked; shocked. Her first words were, "But that's not fair!"

Tsunade sent her a deadpan, and Sakura flushed. Even though Tsunade hadn't said a word, she had conveyed it thoroughly with her eyes. "When was anything ever fair with Naruto?" It was true. The world enjoyed working around him, and watching him clamber his way up through the mud and dirt, pushing him with childish immaturity as he struggled to achieve the heights he wanted. Sakura understood this, but the unfairness in its entirety never stopped making her head reel. Why did people always make his life so much harder then it needed to be?

Sakura paused for a moment in her thoughts.

Yet, wouldn't stripping Naruto's rank do nothing but foil there plans?

She didn't have to be in the ring of Konoha politics to understand that Naruto played a crucial part in the protection of Konoha. As a Jounin, he was susceptible for the more dangerous missions that most Chuunin weren't allowed to take (or, persay, they were a_llowed _but it was highly unrecommended) and that was just what the council wanted. Naruto would be one step closer the weapon they had always molded him into, and demoting him to Chuunin would only wedge their plans to a halt.

So why would they do that?

"Shishou, I don't understand. I thought that the council wanted Naruto to be Jounin, so that he could take the dangerous missions that they wanted him to." She voiced her opinions cautiously.

Tsunade huffed.

(the alcohol wasn't working)

She'd love to tell Naruto all about Danzou's ROOT, and the fact that Danzou was seriously considering recruiting Naruto into his circle of shinobi that were supposedly disbanded (seeing as though Tsunade had no proof of her accusation that they were still around, she couldn't argue anything) but Sakura couldn't be told. And more importantly, it would only spur her to snoop about Konoha with her catlike curiosity, inevitably leading her to her fellow teammate Sai. The whole point was moot, seeing as though Sai couldn't say anything even if he wanted to.

The closer Naruto got to become ANBU, the last chance that Danzou had of enticing him. Hopefully Naruto would use his mulish qualities to stubbornly refuse, but there was always the chance that Danzou's enticing and fake offers would sway him. Tsunade was very sure that some of her ANBU already belonged to ROOT, but having Naruto as one of her main subordinates meant she could keep closer tabs on him, and keep him away from Danzou's conniving hands.

Sakura shifted her wait uncomfortable from foot to foot, unsure as to what to say while her Sensei stayed quiet.

"Naruto is in a very delicate position," Tsunade decided upon, omitting the fat that Naruto's time traveling didn't help matters in the slightest. "One that both the council and...other leaders wish to sway."

Sakura furrowed her brows in confusion, but didn't press the matter.

"Where is Naruto now?"

Tsunade abruptly opened her mouth, but then closed it. Wryly, a grin spread across her face.

"I suppose he's arriving as we speak."

And Tsunade was sure the meeting wasn't going to go well. Sakura took this as the moment to leave, ducking away quickly and leaving Tsunade to deal with Naruto's ire. He'd been in such a morose mood lately, only being spurred out of it by deep seeded anger. It was strange, to see her optimistic and joyous teammate warped into such a shadow of himself. It had all started when he began time traveling...while she walked out, Sakura supposed that perhaps something had happened while he was in some other time that had made him this way.

"What?"

The blond hissed, seeing red.

Tsunade groaned aloud, and fisted a hand into her hair, running it back until her bangs pushed out of her face.

"I'm sorry, Naruto. There was nothing I could do. They were going to demote you entirely to Chuunin but I argued your case until they decided upon partial-Chuunin status."

"But," Naruto sputtered. "I mean... what does that even _mean_?!"

"It means that the council is pushing back your promotion on the terms that I had falsely judged your talents. In other words; favoritism."

"You would never do that!" He shouted, but it didn't help much to release his anger.

Tsunade frowned. "Naruto, they don't actually think that at all. Its the only legally reasonable accusation they have at the moment to demote you."

She had hoped he'd understand why they'd want to demote him without having to explain it, but thinking and connecting links was never something that Naruto had been particularly good at.

"I don't get it."

"They want to demote you, because they don't want you to be ANBU. Because then you would be _my _ANBU, and their hold on you would lesson considerably."

Naruto growled, and his anger lessened into deep irritation. Tsunade supposed it was because he was simply so used to the council's machinations that he simply didn't get as riled as before.

He wedged a finger into his ear, and Tsunade was sorely reminded of the habit from his Gennin days, one he carried even as he first began his trek into time. She noted that he'd abruptly stopped the habit after closing off the portal.

"But I don't get why. I mean, people have been promoted to ANBU from Chuunin, right?"

Tsunade nodded. "However, to do so would require a council's recommendation. If you were a Jounin, you wouldn't need one."

Naruto groaned. He didn't know about that.

"So what do you mean, 'hold on me' anyway?"

Tsunade looked to the side, an irritable look crossing her face. "Naruto... Have you ever heard of ROOT?"

--

Naruto heaved a sigh as he leaned against the towering cement wall.

It had been a while since he had thought about Minato. The wispy shades of his father's face obscured by his memory he had so eagerly tried to wash away with the futile effects of alcohol. His final picture of Minato stayed the longest, festering in the back of his mind like summer skin fouled by the lust of mosquitoes, the sky dawning above them like a dome made from tender blues, Minato's hair a smudge of lemonpeels and buttercup-petals in the corner of his sight, and his eyes wide and shocked. They were so blue, just like his, a torn emotion ripping through that sky in confusion and realization.

The same eyes.

_They had the same eyes._

Naruto had avoided mirrors lately.

The dying sun turned the clouds above Konoha's towering canopy of trees into slashes of blistering orange and peach, and stars eyed him from their omniscient spot above him.

Tsunade was worried; it was Naruto's only explanation as to why she'd put him on guard duty.

(But then, he was considered part-Chuunin as of now, and it was nearly part of the rank description)

He snorted anyway. It was such a waste of his talent. He flexed his hands as he mused, the veins bruised blue and pulsing beneath a thin line of skin, traveling from under his glove to the crook of his elbow, two intertwining like the Euphrates and Tigris, between them; life.

There were so many better things he could be doing right now.

For one, Naruto had never noticed how absolutely _stupid _his younger self was. How Kakashi put up with them was something that Naruto couldn't begin to fathom, and right about now if his silver-haired Sensei was here he'd surely worship the ground the man walked on.

Sensei had always been cool like that. The way he was so elusive seemed to brandish itself with the word shinobi entirely, and appealed to Naruto in its vague, distant sort of action. He was sure that he thought of "Furu" like that as well.

His younger self was coming along nicely, though.

While the Suiton jutsu he had proposed for the boy was something more to keep his interests at bay and excite him a bit—not really for him to every perfect—the boy had exceeded his expectation and had created a wall, however thin and dripping it had been, of water for him the next time he appeared. The swell of pride in himself made him want to be a teacher (he quickly disseminated that thought, seeing as though he'd be one of the worst teachers by far considering his patience)

Speaking of which, perhaps his younger self could use a little checkup...

Naruto took a peek around.

The other Chuunin were lounging about the gate, and no one was approaching them from the dense forestry.

With a quick handseal, a Kage Bunshin was waving at him giddily and he took off into the forest.

–

--x--

–

Uzumaki Naruto near rolled on his heels.

He couldn't _wait _to tell Sensei about the mission.

He let his thoughts carry away from Haku for a moment, and rather to the entire fast-paced action of the entire mission that he was just dying to tell someone.

Iruka had listened patiently, genuinely interested on the blonde's shinobi development. A C-class turned A-class was a very dire situation indeed, but from what the teacher had heard from his young graduate the blond had handled himself rather well. Iruka was proud of him. The Academy teacher had scolded him though, interrupting him to say that he was worried for the boy's health. Naruto had brushed it off as Iruka simply being motherly, but the Chuunin was very concerned for the boy's mental health. Even though it was simply part of the shinobi way of life to experience death first hand, it was something he had hoped to protect Naruto from for as long as possible.

The blond was sunshine, so naïve to the darker parts of the world, even though he had lived so long in their inky, shadowy depths for so long.

Iruka had hoped to preserve that.

"Well, I gotta go, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto beamed at him, smile wide enough to crinkle the bottom of his eyes.

Iruka waved him off, Naruto stopping their chat in favor of running to the training grounds to practice some more. Iruka didn't know what had gotten into the blond lately, he had never taken training so seriously as he did now.

Naruto pushed past the crowded streets of Konoha, making his way to the training ground with the lake.

Furu hadn't been there for a while, but Naruto had shrugged it off to the other blond simply being out on a mission.

He jumped once he noticed the sunshine spikes near the water's edge.

Furu looked sullen today, morosely staring out into the waters choppy surface, the crisp verdant edges of the tree's leaves refracted onto the lake's rivulets in a kaleidescope of dots and smudges, as if a child had fingerpainted them and blurred them about with an eraser.

Naruto jogged up behind him, wondering what had his 'sensei' so sad.

"Oh, Naruto." The flaxen-haired man turned around before Naruto could even open his mouth.

"Furu-sensei!" He grinned. "Where ya been?"

The man chuckled weakly, before rubbing the back of his head, as if a bit sheepish. "Hmm, well, I had to deliver a scroll to the Hokage the other day..."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "You're just like Kakashi-sensei! Always making up excuses. I bet you're lying. And anyway, it wouldn't take so many days to deliver a stupid scroll!"

Furu had to laugh at his younger self's antics. They were so humorous at times, such a comedic relief in the near Shakespearean comedy his life had taken, which is to say, not much of a comedy at all and more of an ironic, sad little anecdote.

Although, he had actually taken the scroll Tsunade had given to Naruto to hand to Sarutobi.

It had seemed to quell the man's amusement at Naruto entirely, and the elder man seemed to take him a bit more seriously now.

A bit, being the key phrase of that sentence.

"I got a life, you know." Furu frowned at the boy below him, who only blinked meekly.

"Like what? Going grocery shopping and reading nasty porn novels?"

The cheeky brat...

"No, think more along the lines of kick as S-class missions including a whole bunch of injured teammates on a one on twelve fight with action packed jutsu."

Naruto's jaw dropped, and he seemed to look at the Jounin now part Chuunin as if God walked in and said to him; "young child, take that beautiful woman over there and procreate."

"_Really?!_"

"Yes, that did really happen." He intoned solemnly, before he opened his eyes to smirk viciously to the younger boy. "But not recently."

"Awhh..." Naruto sighed. "I wanted to hear all about it. Oh! Yeah I was gonna tell you about my mission?"

Furu's brows raised. "Oh?"

"Yeah! I went to Kirigakure with my team for a mission! This old guy wanted us to escort him to his bridge or something dumb like that, and when I first met him I thought he was just some stupid drunk who didn't know how to tell north from east, so I thought it would be stupid. But then it got awesome! These creepy dudes came out of nowhere—"

Reminiscing on the days of his very first A-class mission, Furu's mouth quirked into a wry smile.

Watching his younger self only seemed to make him relive those moments even more.

For some reason, it was unbearably hard to connect between his present and his past. Seeing the boy in front of him made him miss all the whimsy and unknown of the shinobi world, remembering the days when he only brushed the surface of the death and carnage, his exuberance near tangible and the memories he was reliving so palpable that he could taste the desire for greatness on his tongue, sweat-slicked and hardwork driven. Strange, month after month of brutal training and frantic pulse-rates conglomerated into the man he was now, a shadow of the passionate man he once was.

The young boy's mouth sped up quicker as he recalled the beginnings of the bridge fight, faltering a bit with a wavering stutter as he bypassed the ending of his fight with Haku, eyes downcast and wedging his feet into the dirt.

His fists clenched at his sides.

What had time traveling done—this knew adventure in his world, one he anticipated so greatly it was like his dream of becoming Hokage—but warp himself into a strangled creature of himself?

The knowledge washed upon the troubled shores of his mind.

Perhaps ignorance really was bliss.

"Are you even listening to me?!" Naruto demanded, put his hands on his hips.

No, but he could guess. "You had just gotten past the part where you and your Sensei scared the bad guys. And you were saying something about the bridge's name..."

The young blonde immediately brightened. "They named the bridge after me! Isn't that great? It's called the 'Great Naruto Bridge'. Hehehehe...I bet Sakura likes me tons now that I have a bridge named after me!"

"I'm sure," He said condescendingly, but Naruto didn't seem to pick up on the sarcasm.

Furu tapped his chin thoughtfully.

He would have gone with a wind jutsu, but he'd have them covered by the time he was sixteen and it would be a moot point to teach it so early. He tried to think about something he didn't know. Obviously the Rasengan was out of the question, he needed to keep his time with Jiraiya. Looking at the way Naruto was impatiently staring up at him he figured the boy would whine continuously if he taught another Suiton jutsu. Well, a Katon jutsu would certainly do the trick...

"Alright," He clapped his hands. "Today we'll try, Katon; Housenka no jutsu—

"No way!" Naruto yelped.

Furu looked down, puzzled. "What's wrong with it?"

Naruto sputtered a bit, pushing his headband up as he did so in what looked like irritation. "There's so much wrong with it! First of all, Sasuke-teme knows that technique, I'd look like I copied him if I did that! And anyway, if Sasuke-teme knows it the jutsu is obviously not cool enough for me." The boy with lemon colored hair finished with a bit of a haughty sniff.

Furu resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Hey, be thankful I'm even teaching you, let alone solely teaching you ninjutsu! I must be out of my mind!"

Naruto didn't do anything but pout and fold his arms, and Furu wondered just how much of a menace his younger self really was.

"Fine, fine!" He huffed in annoyance. "I'll teach you a really cool technique."

Immediately, Naruto bounced and leaned closer.

Furu mused that it wasn't really changing anything. If he did teach Naruto an A-rank Katon Jutsu it's not like he'd be able to learn it in time for the Chuunin exams, right? And anyway, it was much too difficult for Naruto to learn at this point. Furu was counting on the fact that Naruto was ridiculously stubborn in his practicing, and usually didn't think unconventionally when training and wouldn't think to do otherwise. Hopefully that would offset the boy until he learned it later in life, with a proper teacher. Not a time-traveling older version of himself that really didn't have the time to explain the mechanics of the technique.

"Well," Naruto snapped after long moments of waiting. "What is it?"

With a triumphant smirk, he said, "Katon; Karyuu Endan."

And, rather anticlimactically, Naruto snorted.

"What's that?"

Furu abstained the idea to ram his head into a nearby tree, and instead smirked even wider and began to make hand seals.

Naruto watched wide eyed as he suddenly shouted the incantation, and a monstrous molten dragon erupted from his mouth in large, hot streams of fire, and twisted around in the air in practiced whorls of flames, entwining in the sky like grappling hands of red.

As the dragon died into embers, target-less, Naruto whirled around with eyes the size of saucers, near gleeful.

"I get to learn _that_?!" He near shouted.

Furu grinned. "Yup. But its up to you to figure it out yourself, because I'm leaving the country for some business."

"That's fine!" Naruto interrupted hurriedly, bounding closer to inspect the hand seals.

"Now, it starts with..."

–

–

Uzumaki Naruto near skipped to the red bridge to meet his teammates.

Sakura was already waiting, hands placidly behind her back and bottle-green eyes skyward. She leaned against the bridge with her legs crossed, and didn't seem to notice the amassed exuberance that tailed about the blond like a puppy...or, perhaps, a large monster would be a better analogy to the size of his happiness.

She looked at him quizzically, noting the burns on his cheeks.

"What happened to you, Naruto?" She questioned, voice laced with annoyance. Naruto always got himself into trouble...

Naruto's hand immediately flew to his cheek, grinning sheepishly. He was sure that Kyuubi had healed most of them, or at least, the really horrid ones. True to Furu-sensei's word, he left in quick, hurried paces and disappeared for the better part of the week, only coming to deliver more scrolls to the Hokage. When Naruto had asked why the Hokage needed so many of them, Furu had evasively told him they were correspondences with one of the Hokage's old, dear friends, and hadn't said much else. Naruto thought that Furu must be a very in-demand kind of shinobi, judging from how he never had free time, and he wanted to be just like that when he was older, always doing something cool and interesting all the time. Except, what he didn't know was how much Furu was beginning to despise that.

Naruto didn't have much lecturing on even the basics of fire techniques...nor did he know anyone who did...

At least, he didn't recall any, until Sasuke carried his brooding self up the bridge.

"So the dobe's done some training." Sasuke snorted derisively, crossing his arms.

Naruto, contrary to usual, near gaped at his teammate.

Sakura wavered her gaze between the two of them, both confused and worried for the lack of banter.

After a few moments of silence, Sasuke opened his eyes to see the blond staring at him in a new light.

He shriveled his nose. "You're not falling in love with me, _too_, are you dobe?"

Sakura blushed furiously.

There was some sort of dawning realization in the blond's eyes, and his thoughts began to cork into gear to summon up a plan worthy of his pranking days.

Naruto let the implied insult slide off his back. "Please Sasuke, even if I was gay, I don't do the brooding, annoying, idiotic losers like yourself—

The Uchiha snarled and Sasuke whipped out a kunai and pinned it to the wooden pillar near Naruto's left ear.

The blond only smirked. "What? Struck a nerve? Sorry that your so stupid, I can't really help you there. I bet if we took the Gennin exam again, I'd pass and you'd flunk out like a dumb ass!"

Naruto flipped onto the railing behind him as he taunted. Just as he'd expected, Sasuke lunged towards him, and the two toppled into the grass on the other side of the bridge, mere inches from the river's edge. He threw the Uchiha off of him, and distanced himself enough to be able to dodge a katon justu by diving into the lake. He grinned cockily, wiping some dirt off of his chin and watching Sasuke clench his fists in anger.

"Is that all you got?" He mocked...just a little more... "And here I thought you knew some fancy jutsu—

"Katon; Goukakyuu no Jutsu!!"

Naruto dodged just as Sasuke spit out an enormous fireball, watching as he made the hand seals closer to his chest and farther away from his face, as to dodge the burning hot flames.

Sasuke kept his hands in the dragon seal far longer then normal jutsu, and his mouth was open akin to a smoker's, open enough to allow puffs of smoke, or in Naruto's case, a massive fire dragon. He supposed what he'd have to learn how to control on his own was the form of the dragon, and the dragon itself. The more Naruto pondered this, the more he realized that this was going to be a lot harder then anything else Kakashi-sensei or Furu-sensei had ever tasked to him.

But he was determined.

Not only to show Sasuke and his stupid fire Jutsu up, but to impress Furu-sensei.

_I don't know if a council recommendation is actually needed for a Chuunin to become ANBU. But oh well, I'm not even entirely sure that Chuunin can become ANBU at all. _

_I've already got a fic where Naruto is freakishly powerful, so I'm trying to keep him...well, as surprising as usual (I mean, he finished the Rasengan in a week in cannon) nut not too powerful. So if you think he shouldn't start learning that A-rank jutsu, just keep in mind he's not supposed to learn it at all, Furu is doing so to keep him occupied. But he doesn't know that Naruto wants to impress him by learning it. _


	4. No 9

_A backbone chapter, really fleshing out the problems that arise from time traveling and how Naruto will try to change them back. I'm not sure how long this story will be, I'm thinking it won't hit ten chapters though. I never expected it to even be this long, or have so much feedback :)_

_On a different note, the theme for both Cloud Age Symphony and World's End Rhapsody is ASIAN KUNG FU GENERATION! If you've ever listened to them (I mean, they've done the bleach, FMA, and Naruto openings) good! Each chapter is a different song from one of their albums--and if you're a super nerd like me, and have been to one of the concerts and flown all the way to japan just for that you'll probably know which one!

* * *

  
_

Naruto yelped in poorly concealed joy, wooping spectacularly and loud enough to make Sasuke lean to the left and cringe visibly.

In a way not unlike his usual exuberance, the blonde was grinning ear to ear until his eyes crinkled at the edges and his cheeks looked round splitting his face and creasing his brows. Sasuke, in contrary, had his arms folded and didn't look particularly happy, aside from the glint in his darkened eyes, no doubt thinking of the immense power he'd be able to learn after reaching Chuunin. Another step on the ladder. Naruto seemed to take the paper in front of him the way a dying man at sea may take the ground, flopping onto the ground in a joy unmeasurable by human standards.

The two boys were too immersed in their own desires to notice Sakura carefully brush fresco wisps of hair behind her ear, and look away, eyes averting from the Chuunin Examination forms completely.

Her eyes, settled somewhere between two buildings, flickered to her two teammates, who didn't seem to notice anything was amiss.

"I can't wait Sakura-chan!" Naruto was mock-whispering to her. "I've been learning all these new Jutsu—

At this, Sasuke snorted.

"Well it's true!" Naruto bristled. "You'd be shocked to see what I can do!"

"And what can you do?" Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Snort ramen out of your nose?"

"That was one time!" Naruto protested hotly.

Their banter did nothing to soothe Sakura's tender conflicting of emotions. Naruto, even though he usually had one finger in his ear and a dumb look on his face, had improved immensely ever since his Furu-sensei showed up (Sasuke was convinced that he was a figment of Naruto's imagination, and Kakashi didn't seem to worried, but Sakura was partially inclined to believe him) and, while he hadn't shown them anything that could back up his claims, he certainly didn't stumble in his kata. Not like she did, anyhow. And Sasuke, well, Sasuke was going to do just fine. He _was _considered the best rookie Gennin for a reason. The two had erupted into a full blown argument without Kakashi-sensei to break them up, and Sakura leaned against the bridge with her hands behind her back. It was smooth and dreadfully cold, but she sunk into it lower anyway, as it anchored her to the ground and leveled her thoughts.

Sakura shook her head.

She could do this.

She looked up to see Naruto nimbly dodge the kunai in Sasuke's hand with a gravity-defying flexible flip backwards, before tumbling into the wooden flooring of the bridge and spitting out shuriken from his pockets faster than she could blink. Sasuke deflected them and threw a fireball at Naruto, who dived over the edge of the bridge and landed perfectly on the water. Sasuke followed with unsteady steps, but got his footing and began to throw more knives at Naruto.

Or not.

–

--x--

–

Naruto frowned to himself, as he studied the forestry behind Konoha's looming gates. The guard tower was quite, seeing as though his only company was snoring in the corner. Dawn was crisping at the edges of the mountains, sunbeams crossing patterns onto the canopy of leaves. Naruto had one hand in his pocket, sleeves folded above his elbow so the edges of the fishnet shirt could be seen from underneath. The lines of his jacket covered the hidden pouches of weapons hidden in the pockets of his shirt.

Guard duty.

Naruto sighed.

He thought he was done with this.

Naruto was debating whether anything too terrible would happen if both he and his partner fell asleep, when he was alerted to fast moving presences in the trees.

He peered out of the tower just in time to see a Jounin squad twist out of the trees. He didn't have a view to see their face, but one of them pulled soft long pink hair out of her hood, and Naruto smiled. He leaped out of the tower and smiled to Sakura, who returned it quickly.

"Guard duty?" She teased gently, as if unsure whether it was still a sore topic.

But Naruto only grinned. "Yeah, it sucks. How was the mission?"

Sakura had only been gone for three days, but Naruto was clearly feeling the impact of her disappearance. Without his pink-haired teammate to keep him company, Naruto was forced to accompany Kakashi to ramen—while that not being such a bad event, Sai's appearance clearly turned the tables. Kiba was in the village on extended leave due to a sprained leg, and Neji and Shikamaru had been assigned onto the same team and were currently out in Suna. Ino would say hello every now and then, and Hinata, when not engaged in clan politics, would sometimes stutter her greeting. But Naruto had begun to understand what it felt like for Sakura to have to stay at home when he left for his months on end—even though her leave was only three days.

"Alright." Sakura shrugged, and looked away. Naruto could see the tiredness drawn onto her face.

"We ran into a bit of trouble, but no one was clearly hurt except for Tori. But she's fine now..."

Naruto supposed Tori was the woman with the bird mask, hence her name. Naruto wasn't sure when Sakura started helping ANBU out as a medic-nin, but he wasn't particularly happy.

Especially since he'd been partially demoted, no thanks to Danzou and his clear idiocy.

He didn't want to think of what would happen if Danzou was Hokage.

His eyes then narrowed as he studied Sakura's ANBU team, who were moving into Konoha with the fluent ease of a citizen of its village. Which one of them were ROOT? Could they even be trusted? How could such an organization flourish behind the scenes so easily?

"Naruto? Hello?" Sakura waved a hand in front of his face, and the scowl marring his features disappeared near completely. But Sakura caught the ends of it. "What's the face for? You don't like them?"

"It's not that." He shook his head insistently. "I just..."

He struggled for words, as Sakura's bottle green eyes looked up at him.

Could he even tell her? Tsunade had warned him that even the slightest inking of something amiss would alert Sakura, and since Tsunade was inclined not to trust his teammate he supposed he should do the same. Maybe it was some sort of sign on maturity, but he had begun to listen more to his elders since his time traveling dilemmas had cropped up their problematic roots.

"Well one of them stole my girlfriend." He decided upon, lamely.

Sakura raised a brow, but said nothing else.

She folded her arms over her chest, which was covered in the long hooded cloak she wore for her mission. "Buy me ramen?"

Naruto made a mock bow. "Of course my lady."

Ichiraku was quite, perhaps because it was the end of a slow night and not many villagers were about. Not that Naruto was complaining much. Outside of the shinobi population, he didn't socialize very much, and didn't feel inclined to either. Ichiraku wasn't there today, but Ayame greeted him with a large grin and already had his favorite Chicken Miso ramen prepared for him. Sakura slid into the seat next to him with a small smile lighting up her face, almost as if she was reminiscing.

Ah, the intoxicating smell of ramen...

By the time Sakura had begun to daintily pick at her meal, she had turned to gape at Naruto like a fish on land as he slurped through his second bowl.

The two were decomposed to heaps of chuckles and snickers, caught in memories of the times they'd done this before.

"Naruto," Sakura began with much mirth. "Remember that time when we had all fantasized what Kakahsi-sensei looked like behind his mask?"

Naruto cackled incredulously between the chopsticks in his mouth. "Oh god yeah, I remember I thought he had beaver teeth or something!"

"Or a hideous mole!"

"Or braces!"

The two erupted in laughter again, before Naruto snorted ramen out of his nose, and began all over again.

Naruto wiped it off with shaking shoulders, as Sakura howled next to him. He couldn't remember a time when he had had this much fun.

"When did that even _happen?_" Naruto wondered aloud.

Sakura pondered for a moment.

"Around the Chuunin Exams," She began questioningly. "Or maybe a little before then, I can't really remember."

Naruto sighed. "Oh, those Chuunin Exams. Those things are garbage. Remember how much of a big deal everyone made it out to be? I don't even watch those things anymore they're so boring..."

Sakura shook her head. "Those Exams were so stressful." She sighed. "I remember when we were all training for the exams, I felt like such an outcast all the time—

"That's not true!" Naruto interrupted quickly. "You were always better than me!"

"Better than you?" Sakura swiveled on her stool to face him with the most incredulous look she'd ever given him. "What are you _talking _about?"

Naruto tilted his head quizzically. "Uh, I'm talking about all the times you used to beat me down into the dirt—

"Not at all!" Sakura shook her head in disbelief. "Remember when you and Sasuke were fighting, and Sasuke used his katon jutsu on you?"

Naruto blinked. "Uh...?"

"And then you whipped back around and shot him a Karyuu Endan?! Granted, it was an outrageous disaster and you couldn't handle it at all and it ended up crashing into the water, but still, for a Gennin to be able to wield such chakra is unheard of!" And then, quieter; "Even with Kyuubi..."

Naruto's mouth fell open.

His mind raced faster then he could comprehend.

He didn't remember that at all...

But he certainly remembered teaching the Karyuu Endan to his idiotic younger self and _no way in hell _could that dumb ass ever be able to harness that power so young. In fact, that was the particular reason he taught it to him in the first place. But obviously with what Sakura said he had underestimated...himself.

That was a strange ironic thought.

He wanted to bang his head in the table.

Instead, he pretended to mull this over. "That really happened?"

"Of course it did." Sakura rolled her eyes, stirring her tea. "Why would I make that up?

Naruto shrugged, before plastering a large grin over his face. "Wow, I'm so cool."

Sakura slapped him upside the head.

–

--x--

–

"Sakura-chan," Naruto whined to her, rolling on the back of his heels. His orange jumpsuit sleeves were rolled right below his elbow due to the smoldering heat, even with the cool river below them providing sharp relief from the humidity that sunk into Konoha's streets. "When do ya think Kakashi-sensei'll show up?"

Sakura sent him a half-hearted glare, folding her arms over her lackluster chest. "How would I know?"

Naruto groaned, and flopped onto the ground theatrically.

Sasuke scoffed from his position leaning on one of the bridges bright red ocher poles. Sakura could see a smudge of obsidian black the color of shadows right beneath the russet crest of the bridges hull that marked Sasuke, the Prussian of his shirt matching the deep shades of the sky above them. She tried not to look, and instead averted her eyes.

"Got something to say, bastard?" Naruto growled from his spot on the ground, his furious look doing nothing while his face was upside-down.

Sakura sighed, and clasped her hands behind her back as she leaned into the bridge. The two were so easy-going about the whole Chuunin Exam thing. Weren't they a bit worried at all? Like she was? Even a little?

Naruto had flipped onto his feet by then, and Sasuke had pushed off the pole with a smirk on his face.

Sakura pondered more on this as they began to fight, not bothering to break up their immature need to prove their manly abilities no doubt stemming from extra testosterone. She was more deeply concerned on the fact that the she was the only member of Team Seven who seemed even remotely concerned about the looming gates of fate, more commonly known as the Chuunin Exams, the only known way to graduate to the next level in Shinobi standard. Unless you happened to be a serious prodigy better than Sasuke and got a pass straight from the Hokage.

But if you were average—or even a little below average—like Sakura, there was no chance of that.

She brushed hair out of her emerald eyes as she focused on the floor. If she dropped out, what would Sasuke and Naruto do then? The exams—and the shinobi life in general—meant a lot more to them then it did to her, even she knew that. What would they do without a third teammate? Seeing as though the two couldn't stand each other's presence for more then six minutes until one or the other instigates a fight, and she wouldn't be there to break them up. And even worse, if she didn't participate then Sasuke and Naruto would be at an unfair advantage, and it would be all her fault. Could she live with the guilt of knowing she held them back? But if she did participate, wouldn't she just hold them back anyway?

Sakura bit the inside of her lip.

And suddenly; "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

A fireball erupted from Sasuke's mouth and hurtled towards naruto.

Sakura gasped, horrified. "Sasuke!" Overkill much? She watched, frightened, and heart beating against her rib, as Naruto finally jumped out of the way with a triumphant smirk on his face.

What was that idiot playing at?

"That was lame!" He called out to the panting Uchiha. "You call that a Fire Jutsu?"

The Uchiha leaped back onto land, watching Naruto who stood on the river coolly from the river bank, obviously having upper ground. Sakura would have thought he looked quite cute, one hand fingering the kunai in his pocket and the other holding a shuriken, with his hair slicked back and his suave features twisted into a smirk. But now, she couldn't fight the wrenching whorl of butterflies in her stomach, that had once just fluttered around waiting for release, but had now turned into a whirlwind hand that ripped at her soul.

"Like you could do anything better?" Sasuke was calling to the blond, who was beginning to get riled up even more.

Sakura sighed to herself, sinking down until her cheek rested on her knees.

She was inwardly willing Kakashi-sensei to hurry up and teach her something to make her stop feeling so useless.

Her head sunk lower until streams of her hair tickled her ankles.

"Hell yeah I can!!"

What happens if they died out there? If she stayed behind and Sasuke and Naruto ended up dying because of it?

Her gut clenched again and she felt the color drain from her face.

Suddenly, the heat seemed to rise and she wanted to roll of the bridge into the water and tumble into the glistening waves, sinking lower and lower until she was right there with the rocks and the seaweed. Drifting down and down, hair a cloud of swirls above her and bubbles crawling to the surface. Her head was hot against the soft skin of her knees, and even when she pressed her hands against her forehead was she still hot.

Suddenly, her toes began to warm a little.

Sakura didn't think anything of it until a pillar of fire erupted into the delphinium blue sky above her, and her head snapped up to watch twisting, whorling hands of fire climb into the sky, before spiraling back in a haphazard dance of nature.

She stood up quickly, awed at the size of the dizzying creature, the heat burning her face and making her breath come out in short puffs.

The jagged fire unexpectedly pitched downward in an abrupt motion, and nearly crashed into the babbling water. Instead, it spun over to the bridge where it near slammed into her. She screamed and held up her hands, but the dragon had spiraled into the air, making ribbons of smoke pile from the bridges railings and a bit of her hair.

Her eyes opened wide to see Naruto standing amidst in the chaos—not really standing, he looked more like he was tumbling into the choppy waves. The dragon spun in crazy circles around him, and it looked as if he was having immense trouble controlling it. But Sakura was awed at the sight, his blonde hair shining with the fire and gold at the edges, the claret red whorls curling around him into a tornado of crimson shooting into the air.

Eventually, the fire died down and dramatically pitched into the crashing waves, and even though the dragon was more of a fantastic light show of a ridiculous amount of chakra then an actual weapon, Sasuke made no comment, only watching Naruto in a new light of near fascination.

Sakura too, didn't know what to say.

Her mouth opened, but closed just as quickly.

Kakashi took the moment to swing upside down from one of the bridges poles, with a wave and a burst of smoke.

He smiled at her, before turning to Sasuke and Naruto across from her down on the water.

He spotted Naruto's panting form and Sasuke's angered eyes, but only commented; "Goodness, was someone burning marshmallows?"

If Sakura didn't feel so useless at that moment, she probably would have made some sort of reply.

How could she not?

Now, even Naruto was better then her.

Instead, she only listened with one ear, tracing the lines of the wooden flooring with her eyes.

Kakashi reminded them that the Chuunin Exams were this Saturday, and they'd have to turn in their forms by then. Sasuke and Naruto didn't seem to think anything of it, Naruto crossing his arms childishly before mocking Sasuke, who in turn huffed and shouted something back. The two degraded into immature insults until Kakashi once again broke them up. Sakura could remember her form, gathering dust on the far corner of her dresser, there for her eyes to rove over every time she brushed her hair. In her line of sight at least six times a day. Filled in.

But not signed.

She sighed.

Naruto and Sasuke immediately began to spar, and Kakashi eased into a low level Kata, telling her to take it easy and slow.

Just another training that certainly wouldn't help her improve, especially when she couldn't even get passed the level just above the Academy.

Uzumaki Naruto triumphantly swung his legs over the bridge, hopping back onto its surface and waggling around like a wet dog. While his Karyuu Endan was more of an interesting light show then an actual technique, he was altogether proud of himself. It had taken nearly three weeks of non-stop training every day, not to mention multiple burns from riling up Sasuke enough to get the Uchiha to blast fire at him. But watching Sasuke's face from the river bank was all he needed. The Uchiha was floored.

Naruto rubbed his nose with the back of his finger.

Yup.

He was cool.

"I saw your Karyuu Endan," A voice remarked conversationally from behind.

Naruto spun around with a large grin, and was met with the visage of Furu-sensei. The older man had dark, straw colored hair in an indefinable shade of blonde and brunette combined. The sun beat down from behind him, making the edges of his spikes light up in gold. Naruto mulled over their similarities. While the height and maturity level was surely astoundingly contrasting, Naruto would pick up a couple things that they had in common. Like the way Furu rubbed the back of his head a certain way, or he'd tap his kunai on the nearest surface when irritated, or lecturing.

And some things, like the way he flipped backwards or parried knives, Naruto just picked up naturally as if it was instinct.

Naruto harrumphed, and crossed his arms. How did Furu-sensei always appear out of thin air, and disappear just as quickly?

"It looks cool," The sunny blond whined. "But it's way too hard! Why'd you have to take off like that, sensei? It's not fair! How am I supposed to learn when there's no one to teach me?"

Furu only shrugged, looking around at the familiar red bridge. He'd pass it time to time in his own world, never really bothering to remember how the sun cast blinding rays onto the claret of the bridge's paint, beautiful as monet garden paintings, and as indefinable as the stirring emotions he remembered in his gut.

"You seem to be doing fine on your own." Furu answered distantly, eyes tilted to the speckled light that hit the bridge suspenders. He could feel the water rush beneath him, shaking the wooden lines with minuscule tremors he never remembered feeling before.

"But it's too hard!" Naruto prattled on. "I've never done Katon Jutsu before, sensei! Kakashi-sensei doesn't teach me all his cool moves." The blonde then folded his arms. "He keeps them all to himself, and then he just gets up and leaves at the best part!" The Jinchuuriki glared around the empty bridge as if to prove his point.

"You really shouldn't talk bad about your teachers where they can hear you, Naruto."

Furu tensed, startled, and his eyes immediately focused to the top of the bridge where Kakashi's orange porn stood out amongst his drab Shinobi colored clothing.

Furu said nothing, but Naruto seemed completely unaware of the tension, whining and flailing his arms about, even though neither was listening to him.

"So you're the elusive Furu-sensei." Kakashi mused aloud, Naruto nothing more then a buzz in the background of a storm.

Furu made sure to shrug nonchalantly. "So they say."

"You from Konoha?"

Furu tapped his headband, in a way not unlike he had months ago on a cold spring day on the borders of Iwa, amused by Rin's throwing knives.

Kakashi, if he caught on, did not make note of it.

Or at least, he didn't. For a few moments.

"I've met someone a lot like you before," The silver-haired Jounin muttered thoughtfully, and pierced him with his only visible gray eye.

"Always avoiding the subject, and never giving straight answers." Kakashi tutted, tapping a finger to his chin.

Furu stepped back slightly, cowed by the digesting look on his face. Who was Kakashi referring to? Surely he couldn't remember... Flashes of Rin's smiling visage as she tugged Kakashi along, Minato and he discussing Jutsu and Obito floored by his excellent repertoire. But his instances with Kakashi were slight at best back then, and he doubted Kakashi could remember him past the dying face of his only friend...

Could he?

"Most Shinobi don't," He hedged.

Naruto looked at both of them, puzzled. "Well Kakashi-sensei, seeing as though you're here for once, why don't you train me?"

"Maa, maa, so feisty." Even though his tone was light as he rubbed the back of his head, Kakashi never left eyes with Furu, who's spine was straightening with every passing millisecond. "But I suppose you could go for some extra training."

Naruto yelped in joy.

"I'll be taking my leave then." Furu waved with a smile, turning quickly and leaving before Naruto could notice, and Kakashi could question him more.

Furu instead left his younger self to the hands of his true Sensei, and wandered about the other training grounds, not too far from the red bridge.

He encountered Gai and Lee, running in familiar circles on their hands, counting aloud with every smacking hand and looking quite odd making strange patters in the grass. He chuckled at the sight, the two never really stopped, and even to his time they continued their practice. Shikamaru, much like his older self, had fallen asleep atop a hill, and below him Ino was accusing Chouji of eating her food, who in turn became insulted by the notion. The Team began their sparring, and Naruto was slightly impressed. He didn't recall Ino being so rehearsed in her kata. In fact, all he could remember of Ino from their Gennin days was her ridiculous knock out with Sakura.

When he passed Team Eight, he was again surprised by their teamwork. He didn't think they had improved much from what he could scarcely recall of the Chuunin Exams, but he hadn't thought that Team Seven would be so behind.

Had they always been so divided?

No...

He shook his head. He had always been the glue of Team Seven, although only in hindsight did he realize that. Looking back on it, his presence being removed from Team Seven would require a dividing line between Sakura and Sasuke. One was entirely devoted, the other was entirely repulsed. Without him there, in his ridiculously immature and equally ridiculous poor training, the Team dynamic would be lost.

And he had accidentally done that.

Furu's jaw fell open, watching Hinata jump back to avoid a spray of shuriken with half a mind.

There was only one thought in his head;

How was he supposed to fix it?

* * *

_Lots of spelling mistakes, I bet. My dumb ass computer no longer carries Microsoft word :( and I have to use open office now...which is alright, but will sometimes say that words I spell correctly aren't actually words? _

_Anyway, thoughts?  
_


	5. Neoteny

_More x's means bigger time skip. Yes, I don't know what possessed me to wrangle out the rest of this...i don't really have any idea. Also, I'm not planning on changing anything too major in the chuunin exams, but hey, at least naruto's not depressing anymore? or at least he wont be, by the end of this chapter! Also, there is a MAJOR time skip, but you see it from Naruto (younger) pov. I think I made it pretty obvious, though._

_

* * *

_

The heat festered just beneath the surface of a sea of clouds just in the outer reaches of the stratosphere, light and wispy and dotting the lines of the pale, wavering blue sky, just enough to clot the horizon, but certainly not enough to keep out the blistering sun. The day had only just begun yet it was already reaching such a sweltering temperature that Sakura felt the keen need to trudge back to her house and toss out an array of salad dressing to wedge herself between the eggs and milk in her refrigerator, if only to cool off for a moment or two until her parents discovered her feet hanging out of the fridge door.

It was a deep poetic injustice that Team Seven had practice on such an unhealthy day such as this.

Sasuke—unfortunately—had already left the moment Kakashi-sensei had dismissed them, no doubt to train on his own. Said Sensei had then followed suit and reported to the Jounin mission hall. Sakura sighed...she couldn't wait until she was a Jounin too, and she could take awesome missions like Kakashi-sensei did. Luckily Kakashi hadn't worked them too hard, probably taking note of the outrageous heat that stuck to their skin to do a light taijutsu practice.

Instead of heading home to shower (like she so desperately wanted to), Sakura had instead waited around to train with Naruto, in hopes to get better.

Realistically, she was propped atop a wooden training post, waving her hands at her clammy face while Naruto skewered another post with an assortment of Shuriken and Kunai.

"Naruto," She began questioningly as he pulled out another pouch from his belt. "When did you use senbon?"

Albeit the Gennin was poor with the thin, metal needles, she was surprised he was making such an effort.

The blonde shrugged. "Furu-sensei says I should train with them."

Sakura rolled her eyes, fanning her face more fervently as it blotched incarnadine. "Naruto...really. You don't have to make him up anymore. Me and Sasuke-kun get it, you want to have a new Sensei. I'm sure Kakashi's got the hint by now too—

"He's not made up!" The sunny haired boy insisted, as he threw a senbon with more force than necessary, sending it flying into a nearby tree. "Kakashi-sensei's even met him!"

"Really." She deadpanned.

"_Really_." He stressed.

Sakura left it at that, not bothering to get into an argument in such a horrid amount of heat. She had unzipped her dress with just enough spared to be decent, leaning back on the pole and trying to wave her hands faster. Maybe she could make a bunshin and make it fan her...

Naruto, meanwhile, was becoming more and more irritated as his senbon pouch became more and more empty. He had yet to hit the target perfectly like he had with the kunai and shuriken. Of course, he'd been using the two of those since his very first academy days, so they were hardly anything new, unlike the senbon. Naruto wasn't much for weaponry anyways, but Furu-sensei had insisted he learn the art of metal object throwing. Little did he know that the great Furu-sensei himself hardly wasted time on weapons, and was training the unknowing Gennin accuracy, which was being achieved through weapon throwing. Also, it didn't hurt to know the bodies most crucial junctures.

He threw another spray of the thin needles, only one or two even hitting the post at all. He figured that it was an entirely different motion to throw senbon rather than kunai, but he always got too frustrated at himself to try a different angle to the problem. Sure, he was stubborn and never gave up, known for his unconventional style, but when he was frustrated, his creativity sucked.

"Don't get too hard on yourself."

Naruto whipped around quickly, almost falling with the momentum.

"Furu-sensei!"

At the name of Naruto's most precious imaginary friend, Sakura looked up from her latest attempt to keep cool—this one was using a large leaf instead of her hands—to see a very real, very visible Furu-sensei standing before them.

So he was real. Not only was he real, but he was mightily attractive at that. Sunny blonde hair, a tan like he had grown up in Suna, and a tall, built stature. Obviously a shinobi as well, from his hitai-ate and ninja-attire. Naruto immediately bounded up to the older blonde with obvious annoyance, complaining how his beloved Sensei had once again ditched him without fully explaining the mechanics of the technique he had taught him. The young blonde Gennin went on to express his deep ire at his Katon Jutsu that Furu had taught him, which had backfired earlier that morning when the boy had tried to face Sasuke-kun with it.

"And I looked really dumb too!" The boy was shouting. "Sasuke-teme used his little fireball thing and I tried to use the dragon but it didn't even look like a dragon this time! It was like...a horse with a walrus head...Anyway, why don't you teach it better, huh!?"

"It really isn't my fault if you can't get it down, kid," Furu looked down at the seething blonde mop with nothing short of amusement. "When you don't practice it right."

"Yeah?" Riled up, Naruto took a step back to cross his arms. "Well then how do I practice it?"

The blonde Jounin/semi-Chuunin began to make the designated seals at rapid pace, without saying the incantation or putting any chakra behind it. As he continued to do so, he turned to Naruto. "The first step to a high-level Jutsu such as this is the perfection of hand seals. Which, I'm one hundred percent sure, you _haven't _perfected yet."

Miffed, Naruto only looked away.

Furu smiled in triumph. "Ah, I'm right, aren't I?"

"My hand seals are fine!" The blonde pouted.

The older blonde only shook his head with a sigh. "You can't say I tried, then..." He turned abruptly to where Sakura sat with her mouth dropped, causing the girl to sit up with a startled yelp as the piercing blue eyes landed on her, immediately scrambling off the wood to stand upright, brushing down her skirt and rezipping her dress back to its proper height at her chin.

"And you must be Sakura-chan." The man smiled suavely, Sakura blushing profusely as he and Naruto walked towards her.

"Yeah, this is Sakura-chan!" Naruto bounced in step behind him, beaming with a bright, wide smile, so big that it crinkled his eyes. "Isn't she pretty?"

If possible, Sakura blushed deeper.

Furu only hummed in agreement, not about to make an opinion on this, keenly aware of Sakura's low self esteem at this point. As much as he wanted to say he didn't find her entirely attractive—which was true, after knowing her older, more well-endowed self it was harder to find her younger self appealing—he knew it would probably crush the young, malleable girl.

"Yes, she is."

Before she could keel over and faint, he smiled at the two of them. "So, who's up for training?"

Sakura would have voiced her protest if her voice hadn't left her.

Luckily, Naruto was there to speak for her.

"Sensei! Training! Awesome!" And speeding away to their usual training location, just beyond the bend of trees.

But not for what she had wanted to say.

As Naruto sped quite a ways beyond them in his haste for training, Furu beckoned Sakura along with them. To say Sakura was surprised would be an understatement. She was under the impression Furu was simply a figment of Naruto's imagination...not a rather handsome older blonde with a dazzling smile and nice biceps. He looked almost familiar, too...The three neared the clearing of trees that marked the other training ground, right on the edge of a large, shimmering lake that looked rather appealing in the blistering heat of the sun. Naruto, some ways ahead of the, took no spare time to run onto the dock and leap into its watery depths.

"Is he usually so charismatic?" Furu mused aloud, more to the benefit of his company and conversation then for an actual question.

Sakura made a small noise in the back of her throat. "Oh...you have no idea."

"Come on guys!" Naruto pushed his head out of the waves he'd caused, spurting out lake water from his mouth as he paddled to keep himself afloat. "It feels great."

Furu shook his head as he neared the lake's bank. "We're not here for fun and games, you know."

Naruto made a pout as he began to swim back to shore, and Furu took the opportune moment in which his younger self was too occupied with keeping afloat without inhaling a mass of murky water to speak and take the time to talk to Sakura one on one, without interruption. He had hoped to talk to the girl without intimidating her, and this had simply been the perfect opportunity. He hadn't thought that his younger self and Sakura ever hung out, and he had thought he'd have to somehow get them together for training. Perhaps this could be considered a small miracle.

"So Sakura," He turned to his young, fresco-haired companion. "Do you know how to walk on water?"

The girl blushed miserably as she looked down. "Err—well, no. Kakashi-sensei never taught us."

Which wasn't entirely true—he hadn't taught them _yet. _The man hadn't really shaped up as a teacher until after Sasuke left. And seeing as though Sasuke and Naruto already knew the technique, it was probably a moot point to go through a whole training session to teach the lesson when only one of the team needed to know it.

"Well, today's the day to learn then!" He smiled, clearly enthused.

She blinked at him. "Uh?"

"Come on, give it a try!" With that, he lightly pushed her forward, sending her stumbling into the waves. She floundered a bit to gain her footing on the soft sand of the lake, turning back once she had gained her balance to send him a scathing look.

"What?" He grinned. "Isn't nice and cold?"

She admitted privately that yes, it felt rather wonderful. Not that she'd voice that aloud to give her tormentor the satisfaction.

With a tentative step, she tried to imitate what she had seen Naruto do with Sasuke the countless times the two had fought. Her footing was, at best, rocky, as Naruto shook the lake's surface with his flapping arms and exaggerated movements. She tried to place her foot down solidly on the water's thin skin, only to find her foot going through into the depths.

"Naruto!" Furu, noticing her predicament, hollered to his moronic younger self. "Stop making so many waves."

The blonde crawled onto the deck and shook himself off like a wet dog, hair shaking about in a spray of droplets.

After the waves settled a little more, she tried again, this time with a little more confidence in her abilities.

This time she was awarded with a little bit of resistance before her foot fell limply into the waves. Furu had begun to walk his way closer to where she stood, shin deep in grayish water, his footsteps so light against the water's skin, only causing the smallest lines of ripples with his sandaled feet. He stood a bit behind her to watch her technique, trying to figure whether she was using too much or too little chakra. He clearly remembered Sakura walking up the tree with fluent ease, and he was sure she'd get water walking down without much of a problem too.

"Ah!"

She cried in triumph when she got one foot to stay up on the surface. Sakura slowly brought her other foot out of the water to place it tentatively on the shaking surface.

Her eyes never left her feet, as if to concentrate her chakra harder with her eyes, arms flayed about in an attempt to keep her balance as still as possible. When she was sure that she wouldn't fall right through, she turned, excitedly, to Naruto's teacher.

"I did it!"

He nodded with an easing smirk. "Very good. Now, how about walking?"

The girl blanched immediately as she turned back to look at her wiggling feet. With a little give, she lifted on foot to place it in front, only to fall the twelve inches back into the water abruptly.

She gave him a defeated face, only to be met with his confident smile. "You'll get it." He said, before turning to her blubbering teammate, who had shook himself off and was now wringing the water out of his shirt. "Naruto! Come on, let's get some sparring done."

The blonde looked up with a begrudging face. "What?" He whined. "Seriously?" Naruto was well aware his Taijutsu was sorely lacking.

However, so was Furu.

"Yes." The man began a brisk walk into the center of the lake, waving for Naruto to follow him. With a pout, the younger sunshine-haired boy hopped off of the dock to plod along sullenly after his Sensei, ready for an ass-kicking.

Furu crouched into a defensive stance as Naruto began a pathetic offense, turning towards Sakura. "When you get it down, come over and join us."

Sakura gaped and made a strangled noise in the back of her throat. "Furu-san...Err...sensei, I—I can't do that! I can't walk on water _and _spar at the same time!" That was something Sasuke did, and Naruto now too, but never her...she wasn't good enough to. She could hardly even stand on the surface for more then a few minutes before she hitched into the water.

"Why not?" Furu shot back, as he easily blocked Naruto, sending a light tap to the boys back that had him sprawling into the lake with a splash. "Your teammates can!"

"But that's Sasuke and Naruto!" She protested uselessly. "I'm not as good as them!"

Furu shook his head with a sigh. "Yes you are, Sakura! You can be just as good as them!" Naruto broke the surface at that point, sputtering for air as he struggled to pull himself up with his arms on the water top. "How do you think they got so good?"

"I don't know." She retaliated hotly.

"Practicing, of course!" He answered mid backflip.

Naruto sprang up with a burst of energy, aiming to slam his fist into Furu's chest, but the more experienced shinobi easily ducked out of the way, instead taking Naruto's arm by the elbow and throwing the boy off balance, causing him to crash into the water once more.

"See, look at him." As a perfect example, Furu motioned to the sparkling water that was upturned with Naruto's fall, sparkling in the sunshine. "He's failing at trying to beat me. But he keeps trying anyways, because that's how you learn."

In an attempt at stealth, Naruto shot his hand out of the water and swung to grab Furu's ankle and pull him down with him, but instead, his hand met hot air as Furu hopped out of his hand's grasp.

Unconvinced, Sakura watched skeptically as time after time, Naruto rose out of the murky water to have another go at Furu, who easily sent him spiraling into the water once more. She supposed that perhaps the older blonde had a point, but she certainly didn't want to be tossed like a limp noodle into the water, struggle to break the surface and get back on her feet, before being flung backwards into the watery depths once more to repeat the whole process.

"Why would I want to do that?" She asked aloud,, as she took baby steps towards them. "It looks painful!"

Furu only heaved a sigh.

Sakura wasn't quite at the mentality he was hoping for her to have. She was still more focused on her nails and her soft skin then she was with her ninja training and her skill. In time, she would become one of the greatest medic nin of their generation. At the moment, she could hardly even mold her chakra acutely enough to stand on the surface of relatively smooth water. Once she could run easily on choppy, storm waves, then she'd be ready. However, that would be quite a long ways in the future, and Furu wasn't sure he'd be sticking around long enough to see it through.

Amidst Naruto's jubilant cries as he broke the water, and Sakura's helpless yelp as she once again fell into the water, he tilted his head to watch the clouds maunder upon the sky.

War was brewing in Konoha.

He turned back to them, watching Naruto prop himself on his elbows as he spat out water, looking content and pleased with life, carefree and happy.

–

--x--

--x--

--x--

–

Naruto had seen Furu hardly even a day or two ago, when he had trained Sakura and him, and yet the man looked so different in his eyes then before.

To Furu, he had seen his younger self long months ago, to the point he had almost forgotten his mission Tsunade had given him.

Tsunade...

Furu clenched his fists, looking skyward, to where the looming, intense faces of the Hokage were carved into unwavering stone. One day, Tsunade's face, stern and angry in the brows and thin in the lips—looking altogether like an annoyed hunk of rock—would be carved behind the Yondaime. One day, the mountain would crumble under Pein's wrath, and the citizens of Konoha would crumble with it, laying between dust and tears. That day was far off in the future now, but Naruto held the memory keenly in his mind. It _would _happen. It was inevitable, just as Jiraiya had said—the man himself, pointing out that his death was just as inevitable as the death of a long slumbering tree, cut down to house a family. His death would mark a melancholic moment in time, but it would lead to significance.

Naruto wondered what the significance was.

Was it to leave behind his only heir? The sole surviving sealing master to teach the further generations?

Konoha lay in shambles. The city was in desperate need of rebuilding, Tsunade was comatose, the council was in uproar, Sasuke was out of sight, Sakura was crying, crying, _crying, _he hadn't seen Kakashi and his most present company had been Sai.

Naruto could have screamed.

Instead of doing so—which would have been a counterproductive measure of anger management—he looked to the smiling visage of his younger self, who beamed curiously at him.

"Furu-sensei?" Asked the young blonde, as he rolled on his heels.

Furu said nothing at first, holding Naruto's gaze. Blue to blue, ocean to sky (infinity to infinity) with an expressionless gaze that seemed like a thin layer, translucent enough for the young Gennin to glimpse the catastrophic maelstrom behind his eyes. "Sorry, I was spacing out." He excused by way of explanation. "What were you saying?"

"The Chuunin exams are coming up." The young blond clapped his hands in excitement. "I'm gonna show Sasuke-teme just how good I've gotten—

Sasuke...

Hearing his name made Naruto stumble into the memories he had with the dark haired Uchiha. ((_Are you scared, chicken?_)) To find he was in the bingo book as an S-Class criminal...that he had killed Itachi, that he had evolved his Sharingan, and now, that he had kidnapped the eight-tailed beast...who was Sasuke? Who was he, if not a stranger that Naruto had never met? Not the brooding boy with determination, intense-eyed and fragile faced with ambition and drive, perhaps not the right kind, but a will that Naruto was sorely aware of, as it resided in him as well. More then rivals, the two of them were something more. He'd told Sasuke as much, all those years ago—

_you're my brother_

—and the Uchiha had admitted it. Regardless, he had struck him, lightning wrapping in his hands like the wings of birds, flapping with their jagged electric feathers as they punctured his lung and drenched in blood.

That Sasuke was gone. Naruto didn't know the Sasuke who had stood atop the cliff on that blue day, watching him with hooded eyes, a purple sash around his waste and indifference in his dark eyes.

So much had changed.

Furu looked away from the young Gennin in front of him, feeling more lost then he had ever been. He was continuing this mission, as homage to Jiraiya and the seal they had created together, and to Tsunade—for she was still, and would always be for as long as she drew breath, his Hokage and she had assigned this mission personally. Regardless of where his heart was, far away from this sunny day and bright morning, to where Sakura was brushing back hair the color of a flower girl's blush from her face, back against a summer-blossoming tree and bottle green eyes wide but sightless, waiting patiently near his seal.

"Furu-sensei!" Naruto shouted at him, loud enough to knock him out of his musings.

The whiskered short Gennin was gazing strangely, if not irately, at his beloved Sensei, who didn't seem to be hearing a word of the ways he would take down Sasuke and win Sakura. In fact, the older blonde looked so uninterested, and wasn't even bothering to hide the fact. Naruto for all his tactless boisterous attitude and equally tactless empathetic sense had noticed the change since a couple days ago. Furu looked as if he had lived a year since he had last saw him, stratosphere eyes pensive and cold, hands shaking in fury and sadness.

"You look as if you're lost, Furu-sensei." Naruto commented, with a frightening amount of insight.

Furu sighed. "I am."

"Well, where's your house? I'll direct you back there—

"It's not that simple, Naruto-kun." He smiled wryly. "I'm not that kind of lost."

Naruto tilted his head, confused at the depth of Furu's drift. "There are other kinds of lost?"

"Have you ever not known what to do?" The older of the two looked skyward again—he'd been doing that quite a lot—the sun picking up the saffron in his hair, glinting with the shifting clouds. "As if your ambition has been ripped from you?"

Naruto pondered this thought with great intensity. Looking as if he hadn't a clue what to say to that. His older, more jaded, self sighed. If Jiraiya was here, he'd know what to do. He'd know what to say. Perhaps Furu could access sage form, find a sunny rock to sit upon, and do some much needed meditating—

"No, I've never felt like that." Naruto answered abruptly, and honestly, eyes watching somewhere far beyond this dimension. "I've always wanted to be Hokage, and no matter, what, I'll never give up." He shook his head, and then stared right at him, with a gleeful grin and a thumbs up. "That's my ninja way!"

He'd never really thought of himself as inspirational. In fact, he never thought himself as anything other then just Naruto. Yet countless people had changed because of the tactless, moronic idiocy he spouted, so stupid yet so brave and _innocent_. Providing such simple yet distinct answers that solved the most complex of problems. Jiraiya was dead, Tsunade was in a coma, Sakura was distraught, and Sasuke was in the bingo book. But he was Uzumaki—Namikaze—Naruto, and he never fucking gave up.

Furu blinked, aback. All this time, all this sadness, and he had forgotten all about that. A grin split his face the way Sakura split the spine of her favorite medical book. "That's a great nindo."

"You think?" Naruto brightened, and then tugged him along—no doubt, for ramen. "I told Sakura-chan that too, and she only laughed. She thinks its stupid."

"Is that so?" Furu hid his smile. "I think she'll change her mind eventually."

–

--x--

–

"You look different." Sakura commented. It was meant to be light and conversational, yet Naruto knew that inwardly, he had soothed her greatly with his usual outlook, which had sprung back tenfold since seeing his younger self.

"Do I?" He asked, noticing how her eyes didn't meet his as they walked side by side to his house.

She nodded once, hair falling from behind her ear, and she hastily brushed it back. It had gotten considerably longer, probably because she hadn't the time to cut it. The short hair cut reminded Naruto of the intensity Sakura could bare, how far she'd come from the time that Naruto had previously been in. It stood as an unflappable difference between the whiny child Naruto met hours prior to the woman with stone-eyes in front of him, with worn hands and chakra from healing the sick and dying.

"Happier." She smiled then. "Lighter."

"I feel like it, too." He added. He hadn't in a long time. Not matter what he had said to Nagoto, how he would never give up, how it was his ninja way, the saying had turned into just words. The world had changed him. Giving up his father changed him, letting go of Rin and Obito. It was hard and painful, but he had to stop reminiscing, and start remembering who he was, and the people who needed him. Hearing the brutal honesty of his younger self had reawakened that. "I feel like I remember who I am again."

"That's good." Sakura stepped into his apartment first.

It didn't look much different, still spartan in décor. He'd invested in a nice glass coffee table with dark old wood, and a plush couch and arm chair. They looked classy compared to his ratty, beat up bar stools, and altogether out of place in his ridiculously second-hand apartment in the nicest apartment building in this side of the city.

Sakura sat down at his bar, and immediately noticed the beautiful bouquet of roses.

She leaned over to smell them, but they were odorless, and colorless. Frowning, she touched one of the thin, papery leaves. It crinkled beneath her fingers. "They're paper."

Naruto nodded.

Sakura made no questioning of the origin of these flowers, even though her curiosity burned. Perhaps one of the villagers had given it to him. They were quite fond of him now, ever since he saved them. She would be too, and she already was. Naruto was a true hero, but she saw more then just the side he displayed to the general public. Naruto, like everyone, was confused and unsure, weaving through ups and downs. She was happy to see him so exuberant again—he hadn't been for a long time.

"What of Akatsuki?'

Naruto shook his head as he leaned over his counter opposite of her. "Not sure. Konan left, and we suddenly have an ally in Amegakure. But I hardly think their over."

Sakura wordlessly nodded, outside, the city was under intense construction. Naruto's building had been remodeled almost immediately—this was no doubt because of the intense funding it had received from its rather prosperous residents—and the rebuilders had seen to making Naruto's apartment as close to its original as possible, probably out of gratitude. Sakura didn't think hers would be up for a long while, and perhaps she should stick to crashing on Naruto's comfortable couch.

Sakura was about to open her mouth, when a massive dog came barreling into Naruto's apartment.

"Akamaru—" She reeled in surprise at the large white mass of fur. "What?!"

"There you guys are!" Kiba came sprinting in seconds later, the loud noises of construction coming from the now open window as Kakashi strode inside.

"Kakashi-sense?!" Naruto blinked. Looking between the two of them in surprise. "Could you at least knock?" He directed to Kiba, and then, to his Gennin Sensei. "And you, could you at least try the door?"

Kakashi didn't seem to be in the mood for jokes, face grim.

"What's wrong?" He began slowly, as he noticed the stone-set faces the two wore.

Sakura apprehensively looked between the two. "Guys?"

"It's about Tsunade-sama." Kiba confessed. "She—She hasn't woken up yet."

"You make it sound like that's surprising." Sakura frowned, nonplussed. "Of course she hasn't. She used a tedious amount of chakra, and was near on the brink of exhaustion. She's not as young as she looks, you know."

"That's not what I meant." The boy and his dog-companion looked stricken. "It's that—well...since she hasn't woken up yet...the council have decided on a new Hokage."

"New Hokage?!" Naruto echoed, forlornly. "What? How?"

"The council is allowed to elect a new Hokage if the other is incapacitated or unable to preform his or her duties." Kakashi inputted, looking neither excited nor pleased at this information.

Kiba nodded. "Yeah, I heard they were gonna pick you, Kakashi-san."

"Oh...it's you?" Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, that's different, but not too bad—

"It's not me." Kakashi cut in flatly. "It's Danzou."

Naruto's eyes went wide, behind him. Sakura's face lost her pallor.

"Yeah, but that's not what I came to tell you." Kiba began, sending a furtive, nervous glance to the three of them, looking more anxious then Naruto had ever seen the loud, boisterous Inuzuka. "Since Danzou's the new Hokage, he declared Sasuke as a missing-nin of Konoha to be killed on sight."

Naruto closed his eyes, as Sakura gasped in shock. Behind them, Kakashi cursed quietly.

Kiba wavered slightly as he stood, unsure of what to do now that he had delivered Team Seven the news. He knew that the three still had close ties to the remaining Uchiha, regardless of the fact that the Uchiha didn't seem to share those bonds. Sasuke had been in the bingo book for quite a while now, however, he had never been an enemy of the state like he was now. And he certainly hadn't been labeled 'kill on sight'.

Naruto sightlessly studied the smooth lines of the papery roses against the backdrop of his living room. They hadn't withered at all, staying as immaculate and pristine as they had been when Konan had wordlessly handed them to him, a testimony of her gratitude. He had been able to come up with an answer then, a solution to reviving Konoha.

Would he be able to do the same now?

–

--x--

–

Two days until the Chuunin Exams. Two days, and Naruto had religiously shown up to train his younger self into the ground for these last few hours.

The younger blond protested helplessly, but Naruto would hear none of it. He wasn't playing around anymore. The Chuunin Exams—they had started it all. The deciding, crucial event that would change the forefront of the upcoming tides—shaping the destiny of Konoha itself. Naruto was impeccably aware of this fact as he rigidly trained the young blond in front of him, not making it easy, but teaching him as much as he could.

He had also taken it as a duty to swoop up Sakura whenever he could, pleased to find her chakra training was going well. He was, of course, aware that Sakura was naturally adept to using precise amounts of chakra due to her lower reserves then his younger counterpart and their Uchiha teammate.

If Furu interfered in the exams himself, he was surely to get the whole tea disqualified, as well as an array of ANBU on his ass.

Instead, he'd have to channel all he could into the young Gennin in front of him, in hopes for the boy to be able to protect Sasuke from Orochimaru. Somehow, he doubted this option was plausible in the least, but perhaps he could actually make Chuunin this time around. It'd be nice to wake up and find himself an actual Jounin (He was now even more certain with Tsunade's comatose state that he was never going to make ANBU like he wanted) and maybe even Konoha miraculously repaired.

"Are you ready for this, Naruto?" He asked softly, eyes focused on the stratosphere some ways above them, brilliant blue.

The two walked slowly to the Academy, one looking solemn, mind in the past, and the other, confident, mind in the future. But both optimistic.

"'Course I am, Furu-sensei." Naruto gave him a thumbs up. "You whipped my ass these past few days. It would really suck if I didn't."

"I know you'll make it, kid." Furu made sure not to sound too omniscient, even though he knew that no matter what outcome, Naruto would be able to pass the exams, be it scraping by or on top of the heap. The two walked up the stairs to the front entrance, Furu opening the door for the younger of the two. He stopped before he entered, causing the Gennin to turn around, a questioning look when he gave the boy a thumbs up. "Believe it."

The boy blinked up at him in surprise, as if wondering how on Earth the older blonde had ever heard his old catch phrase when he was certain he'd never used it in his presence.

Before he could ask, Furu shot into the sky. "See you later Naruto!" He called, as he left the blonde there, gaping in surprise, as he leapt onto the top of the Academy before pushing off onto the other roof tops.

He'd come back for the final exams, to fix Gaara's seal like he had intended to.

* * *

_Chuunin exam time! (honestly, I hate writing these things...)_


	6. Haruka Kanata

_I seriously lost inspiration for this fic—rather the manga just went everywhere and I was just so confused. But that literally defines my life, so sometimes you just gotta run with this shit. _

_I was going to go a completely other direction with this fic, as I've written the Chuunin exam so many times its physically painful. But its an important part of the first arc, so sometimes you just gotta suck it up. _

_Things I've changed from cannon: Naruto didn't meet his father when he defeated Pein. I'm surprised no ones pointed that out. But no, that didn't happen. To be honest, I thought that whole scene was a little stupid anyway. If Sasuke killed Itachi after the council, I really don't' remember. But if he didn't then this actually hasn't been changed._

* * *

Naruto knew that there was something clearly wrong the moment he spotted his younger self face down in the floor.

And also knew that whatever had happened, it was entirely his fault.

It was obvious that this was the result of some degree of stupidity on his part, as Rock Lee hovered over his younger self, distressed and halfway to tears. Accidental then, most likely. Sasuke was hanging awkwardly away from the spectacle as Sakura ran and skidded to her knees, shaking his limp body repeatedly.

He'd come to the past in hopes of meeting Kakashi or one of the other Gennin instructors, on the off chance that he could pass himself off as a curious Jounin amiably making conversation about the Gennin exams. The academy was completely devoid of Kakashi, Gai, Asuma or Kurenai, though he did stumble upon Sasuke's fight with Rock Lee.

Or what was supposed to be.

Instead, the Uchiha was frozen on the sidelines, looking as if he hadn't fought at all. And it was his younger self that seemed to have taken his place, resulting in a different end then the one he remembered.

The blonde felt his heart freeze, his feet carrying him numbly until he stood, like a still wraith over his own body. What a surreal moment, as his mind continued past warp speed, trying to wrap around the fact that he could possibly be dead right now. _Was _he dead right now? Had Rock Lee accidentally kicked his skull straight in? What about him then, did that make him some sort of fucked up paradox?

_What the hell was going on?_

When he voiced it aloud, Rock Lee immediately leapt up.

"I'm so sorry—this is entirely my fault, Jounin-san!" The bowl-cut boy sniffled. "You see, I had wanted to fight Uchiha-san… but Uzumaki-san…" The boy gave a tearful look to the fallen blonde on the floor. "He _insisted _to fight instead."

Naruto sighed. Yeah, that was him alright.

"And what else?" The blonde Jounin edged him on snappishly.

"He used some strange technique—

"It was _Karyu Endan._" The Uchiha spoke up then, looking stunned himself. Naruto studied the lines of his face, wondering where the boy was now. He'd killed his brother—now what? With his revenge filled, what was left for the shell of his best friend? Naruto wasn't sure.

"The dragon flame bullet?" Sakura looked up sharply, confused and bewildered. "But—But that's an A-Rank Jutsu! I mean… Naruto couldn't have possibly…"

The Jounin blonde waved her off. "It was probably a very untamed, lesser version." He assured the girl. Well, at least he hoped so.

At any rate, the blonde was seriously regretting teaching that technique to his younger self. Who knew it'd end up being his signature?

"I tried to block it…" Said Rock Lee, mournfully. "I released too many gates—this is all my fault! I shall run twenty laps around Konoha to atone for my sins—

"That's quite alright!" Naruto cut in hastily. "This isn't your fault, Lee. It was an accident."

The blonde knelt down next to his younger self, trying to ignore the blatant orange as he rolled the boy over. He wasn't Sakura, but he knew enough about general health and well being to heave a sigh of relief. He was alive, thankfully. Looks like his head was a little bit thicker then he thought.

"Is he okay?" Sakura whispered, fearfully. Naruto was touched to see so much concern out of the girl. Sakura had always been a little stand offish with him, before Sasuke had left, anyway. What else had he accidentally changed?

"He'll be fine." Naruto lied, still unsure himself.

He realized with sudden clarity that the exams were about to start—and Team Seven and Neji's team would both forfeit if all three members weren't there for it.

"Why don't you guys head over to the exam room?" He began quickly. "I'll just help Naruto up…"

"But—but you can't enter…" Sakura faltered in her protest. "…Without a full team…"

Naruto gave her a smile, watching in amusement as the girl's cheeks lit pink. God if he told Sakura that her younger self seemed to gave developed a crush on him… "Don't worry, I'll get him there in time."

Though Sakura didn't look convinced.

Luckily, Sasuke seemed to understand how dire their situation was. "Sakura." The girl turned at the sound of his voice. "C'mon. Just listen to him."

Still unconvinced, though clearly wavering, Sakura only nodded numbly, following in step with her Uchiha teammate. She gave a worrying look to her fallen teammate, before scurrying after Sasuke.

"You too, Lee." He spoke to the older Gennin, smiling. "Your technique is very impressive. You wouldn't want to miss your chance for Chuunin, would you?"

"No, Jounin-san!" Lee parroted, looking pleased with the compliment. "…You really think I will make Chuunin?"

"You're very talented." Naruto answered truthfully, tactfully leaving out the fact that he would probably be injured during the preliminaries of the final round. "A real Taijutsu master! Is Gai-san your teacher?"

"Yes he is!" Lee brightened. "He is the most talented Jounin-sensei in the world! Gai-sensei can do anything, he is so youthful! Just last week he—

"I'm sure he is—but maybe you should go in too…" Naruto interrupted weakly, before this Gai spiel got out of hand. "I'm sure your team is waiting."

Lee bolted in surprise. "Ah! You are quite right, Jounin-san!" Then he took off, shouting over his shoulder. "Thank you, Jounin-san!"

The blonde only shook his head. "That guy hasn't changed one bit."

He looked back to his unconscious younger self.

Naruto was under no impression that this entire scenario hadn't been his fault. If he hadn't taught himself that technique—which was clearly too much for the young Gennin to understand, or even _comprehend _the consequences of, this wouldn't have happened. The young blonde wouldn't have had the confidence to challenge Rock Lee in Sasuke's stead, nor would he have been able to fight off the older Gennin without all the training "Furu-sensei" had asked him to do.

Like he didn't have enough fucking problems. What with Sasuke being on Konoha's wanted list, that crazy ass Danzou being elected Hokage, Akatsuki, and the fourth Shinobi war practically simmering on the horizon. Now his younger self was knocked cold and the exams were going to start any minute now.

"Naruto." He poked at his younger self. "Hey. Kid."

Nothing.

He tilted the boy's head, taking a look at the deep gash on the side of his head, dripping down his ear. It looked pretty bad, and though he could tell Kyuubi was already healing the wound, that could take _hours. _They didn't have hours. They had five minutes at best.

Naruto sighed.

"Dammit."

.

.

.

Sakura fidgeted, for once unconcerned with Ino leaping onto Sasuke, nuzzling her face into his neck. Her eyes hadn't once left the door behind them. They'd met Kakashi-sensei, who had first and foremost asked where Naruto was. Sakura had lied and said he was in the bathroom. But the fact remained—they couldn't compete without a full team.

After Ino had moved on to berate Chouji, Sakura hedged closer to her last remaining teammate.

"Sasuke-kun," She began timidly. "You don't think…"

"He'll be fine, Sakura." Sasuke said, exasperated. Though there was a lingering crease to his brows, a concern for his teammate. Or perhaps for the fact that without their teammate, they wouldn't get a shot at being Chuunin.

Sakura let out a breath. Well, if Sasuke believed it too…

"Who was that?"

Sakura blinked, startled at the question. "Huh?"

"That guy." Sasuke reiterated. "That Jounin guy."

"Furu-sensei?" Sakura tilted her head. "That's Naruto's sensei. Apparently he's real. He's the one who taught Naruto all those techniques…"

The Uchiha narrowed his eyes. _That guy… _he thought to himself, _must be very powerful. _Even an idiot like Naruto could clearly learn things from him. Things like that powerful A-rank Jutsu. Kakashi certainly wasn't teaching them anything like that.

"Hey guys!" The door opened, and the whole twelve turned to the opened door.

"Naruto!" Sakura breathed, relieved. "You're alright!"

"Yeah guys, I'm fine." The bubbly blonde rubbed the back of his head. "What'd I miss?"

"Idiot." Sauske sighed, though he looked just as relieved.

"You moron!" Sakura swiped at him. "You almost got us booted out of the exams! Why'd you have to get hit like that?-!"

Naruto ducked easily, smiling. "But Sakura! It's not my fault! Everyone knows Lee hits pretty hard. And anyway, he had almost five gates open! You don't mess with shit like that…"

All twelve of them were staring at him, uncomprehending.

"Dattebayo?" He ended, awkwardly.

Shikamaru turned away first. "Whatever." The kid yawned. "At least he's back."

Naruto was surprised to see the rest of them looking pleased to see him as well. The blonde was touched—had they all cared that much? Had he never realized how much he had, how many people he had behind him? He'd thought that the village had only truly supported him after he'd taken down Pein. Perhaps he'd been wrong… maybe it was there all along, and he'd just been too blind to see it.

And more importantly, why was _he _repeating the Gennin exam?

How the hell could his younger self had ended up unconscious? Team Seven _couldn't _fail just because he fucked up the timeline again. There were some shit that he instinctively knew not to mess with. The Chuunin exams were implacably one of them.

And he had clearly already fucked it up.

"Is your head feeling okay?" Sakura asked, worryingly.

"It's fine!" Naruto lied easily.

Actually, he'd stuffed his younger self into a closet after putting a sleep Jutsu on him. _His _head was probably going to be pretty killer when he woke up. Hopefully it would keep him out for a the hour of the test, at least until the first exam was over. And even if he did wake up, the kid was blinded, tied and gagged. If he managed to get himself out of the locked door and through the Genjutsu Naruto had trapped it up with, _then _he'd be really impressed. At his teaching abilities as much as he would be at his younger self. He'd keep to the plan for now—wait until this exam was over before seeing if his younger self was awake yet. It wouldn't take a difficult illusion to make the boy believe he'd actually taken the test, and hadn't spent it in a janitor closet.

How many things would he accidentally change? Naruto was already fast-forwarding, bracing himself for the moment that Orochimaru forever pitches Sasuke into the darkness. Was it even physically possible for him to stand by and do nothing? Not to fight that man with every ounce of chakra in his body?

The blonde Jounin—disguised as his younger Gennin self—sighed.

And why the hell was he taking these goddamn exams over again? They sucked enough the first time around.

"You kids are noisy." A testy voice came from the side, and Naruto felt every bone turn to stone and his blood run cold.

Kabuto.

"Right out of the academy, right?" The guy sighed. "Screaming like school girls… this isn't a picnic."

Naruto couldn't even move. Actually, couldn't even say anything. To think, this guy gave his body to a freak like Orochimaru. Naruto shivered involuntarily. What a creep.

"Who do you think you are?" Ino scowled.

"I'm Kabuto." The slimy bastard introduced himself. "But instead of that, look behind you."

"Behind?" Sakura blinked, turning around.

She was met with almost every pair of eyes in the room, focusing on the Gennin gathered in the center of the room like they were some sort of circus spectacle.

"Everyone is nervous about the exam, so you should quiet down before you cause a scene." Though Naruto assumed the already had. Kabuto continued on. "Well, I can't blame you. You're clueless rookies. Remind me of how I used to be."

_What's sad is that you've taken this exam seven times._ Naruto thought irritably. And for what? To help Orochimaru take Sasuke?

"So this isn't your first time then?" Naruto scowled, unable to hold his temper much longer. "Jeez. How many times have you taken this exam then, _seven_?" He laughed. "Isn't that a little more pathetic…?"

Kabuto narrowed his eyes, and Naruto caught the glimmer of the actual, cruel-hearted man. It was gone quickly though, replaced with an almost meek little smile. "Err—actually yes."

"Wow... so you know a lot about this exam!" Sakura pointed out.

Kabuto chuckled. "That's right. I'll even share some info with you cute rookies. These are nin-info cards…"

"Nin-info cards?" Sakura echoed.

"They're basically cards which have info burned into them with chakra. I have four year's worth of info here. Over two-hundred cards…"

Chouji had knelt next to him curiously. Naruto wanted to drag the Akimichi at least twelve feet away from the guy, but refrained. "What are you doing?"

"You can't view them unless I use my chakra…" He explained. "For example…"

Naruto wasn't nearly as impressed with all the information as he had been the first time around. Quite honestly, most of it was useless anyway. It was strange, watching Sasuke get so worked up about Gaara and Rock Lee's cards. Actually, it was surreal just seeing expression on the boys face. Soon, it would be nothing but a mask of impassivity. Naruto had tuned everything out, focusing on the bridge of Sasuke's nose, the high cheekbones and sharp chin. To think that he'd joined Akatsuki…

What happened to him?

_They were enemies now_… Naruto thought to himself, distantly. Well and true enemies.

And yet here they were, still on the same team.

He was so lost in thought that it took Kabuto belching on the floor to bring him out of it.

They didn't have much time, because soon all the proctors arrived with more stunning style than Gai's "Dynamic Entry" Eventually, the crowd thinned out as everyone got into their seats for the paper test. Naruto didn't even bother with looking at it, more concerned over getting all this over with. He'd take this stupid test, and once it was over he'd see if his younger self had woken up enough to take the rest of the exam. There was a lot to change in the Forest of Death, but Naruto wasn't sure if it was even for the better. But Sasuke…

Once again, Naruto had accidentally completely forgotten about Hinata, who was smiling at him and wishing him well for the test. Oh god Hinata…

He stared at her, the short hair and blushing, rounded face. To think this girl just proclaimed her love for him, and took a hit from the Akatsuki leader.

Naruto was so red in the face that for the majority of the test that he was as bright as a tomato.

There was little else he could do but feel his face burn, staring uncomprehending at the paper in his hands. Jesus, a Jounin and he still didn't know the answer to half of these fucking questions. To think Sakura answered them all—that was pretty goddamn impressive.

Why was he still sitting here taking this stupid test?-! Hadn't it been an hour yet?

"Ok," Ibiki's voice sliced through the anxious silence, startling everyone in the room. Naruto slumped in his seat—after doodling for the past hour, trying not to think about Hinata, or _his love life in general, _when the girl was right next to him was incredibly tedious. "And now, for the final question."

"First, for this tenth question…" The torture and intelligence operator began steadily. "You must decide whether you will take it or not."

"Choose?-!" Temari shouted. Naruto almost laughed. Six years later and she was still a no nonsense battle axe. And Gaara… well, hopefully Naruto would keep him from dying. "What happens if we choose not to?"

"If you choose not to," Ibiki continued on, irritated at the interruption. "Your points will be reduced to zero—and you will fail! Along with your teammates!"

The crowd erupted into noisy anarchy, which Ibiki quickly quelled with a quick jab to the desk in front of him. It splintered on impact, and the entire room became deathly quiet once more. "And now, the other rule. If you choose to take it, and answer incorrectly, you will lose the right to ever take the Chuunin selection exam again."

Kiba protested the obvious. "What kind of stupid rule is that?-! There are guys here who have taken the exam before!"

"You guys were unlucky. This year it's my rules." The man smiled, though with his scarred face it looked a little grim. "But I am giving you a way out. Those that aren't confident can choose not to take it… and try again next year."

Naruto scowled lazily. To think he'd been so freaked out over such a transparent question. But of course, being a ninja was all about being brave—or in his case just really fucking stubborn—and this sort of shit hadn't even really fazed him even when he _really _was twelve.

"Now the tenth question… let's begin! Those who do not with to take it, raise your hand. Once your number is confirmed, leave."

He couldn't take it anymore. All the frustration from the future—all that useless feeling, unable to help Tsunade, to stop Danzou from becoming Hokage, even from Sasuke killing Itachi, and selling his soul to the devil himself. No amount of brute strength, mulish stubbornness or just plan old naïve faith could help him. He could crush any opponent in his way—but to what end? Nagato had changed his ways… but Madara was still controlling Akatsuki. He was ready to be Hokage, but the council still stood in his opposition. Everything was building up inside him, having to take this stupid test all over again, the pressure of realizing how much he'd fucked up the world by going into the past, how much he _could _fuck up the world, the fourth shinobi war and Sasuke standing on the other side from him—

He couldn't help it, he laughed.

"Got something to say, blondie?" Ibiki narrowed his eyes. The Gennin struggling out of the room had stilled at the sound.

"Yeah I got something to say." The blonde began, irritated. "This test is some goddamn fucking _bullshit _and so is this goddamn tenth question—so you can take this _shit _and shove it up your ass because I'm _not fucking going anywhere_!-!"He didn't know when he stood up, but he was standing. "Uzumaki Naruto doesn't give up goddammit!"

How ironic, that he had just spent the entire test mulling over how little people changed, when it seemed even he hadn't changed all that much either. How inspirational. Of course he couldn't give up; just because there was too much shit to do didn't mean he could just roll over and let the world go to the dogs. No offense to Akamaru.

Ibiki narrowed his eyes. "I'll ask you again." He began, calmly. "Your life is riding on this decision; this is your last chance to quit."

"I don't quit." Naruto frowned. "That's… my ninja way."

Though he may have forgotten for a while.

Ibiki glowered for a moment, before nodding. "Good decisions." Was all the man said. Naruto thought he looked a little impressed. "Now, to everyone still remaining—I congratulate you on passing the first test!-!"

Naruto could actually hear Sakura's audible sigh of relief from somewhere above him, and he smiled.

"To the seventy-eight who remain—congratulations on passing the first test!"

"Wait…" Sakura spoke up uneasily. "What do you mean? We already passed? What about the tenth question?"

"There never was such a thing, or you could say that those choices were the tenth question." He smirked, his eyes lingering on Naruto. "Though I wonder if some of you have already figured that out."

"Huh?-!"

"Hey!-! Then what were the first nine questions for?-! They were pointless then!" Temari yelped.

"They were not pointless." Ibiki shook his head. "They had already served their intended purpose." Temari looked confused. "To test the individual information gathering ability—that was the purpose."

"First, as the rules explained… success on this test is based on the whole team overall doing well. This puts pressure on each member not to mess things up for their teammates."

Naruto breathed, flopping back into his seat and sprawling there, feeling better then he had in weeks. Maybe time travelling to the past was rather therapeutic—it certainly helped him remember all the things he'd lost about himself in the last couple years. The years maybe changed him, but he was still Naruto underneath it all.

"But the questions on this test were not types that a mere Gennin could answer. Because of that, I'm sure most people came to the same conclusion; that to score point's they'll have to cheat."

"Basically the premise of this test is to cheat." Ibiki explained. "As cheating targets, we had two or so Chuunins who knew all the answers mixed into the crowd—to help you guys."

Hah, and to think that he'd literally had no idea that this had been the motive of the test the time he actually took it.

"Those that cheat poorly fail, of course." Ibiki began, pulling off his hat. "Because some times, information is more important than life. And on missions and the battlefield, people risk their lives to get their hands on it."

His scarred, burned head looked worse then Naruto remembered. A stark reminder of the Third Shinobi war, which ravaged all of the five great nations and decimated half the Shinobi population of Iwa and Amegakure.

And not even twenty years later the Fourth Shinobi War erupted. However, would Konoha emerge victorious next time?

Ibiki continued to explain the importance of gathering information, and Naruto found his thoughts mulling over to Sakura, and the Konoha in which he had hastily left behind. On the brink of the Great War, hell, on the brink of everything. For a few days it was total destruction, now it was total destruction _by Danzou, _and pretty soon it would be total destruction by the world. Conveniently, or perhaps rather inconveniently, Naruto was aware that these stupid, _moronic_ exams were the forefront of everything, and here he was having to fastidiously restrain himself from doing anything at all.

This just clearly sucked.

What sucked more was Anko barreling the wall down with her grand entry, knocking dust and wall plaster into his face in the process. He thought less of her intimidating opening speech and more on his younger self, and his reaction to seeing her the first time. Were her boobs smaller? Was that _possible_?

He missed the part where she imperiously commanded everyone to follow her, and hastily got up after his team as they made their way with the remaining Gennin.

Just as the group rounded the corner, he threw up his hands and landed a Kage Bunshin, sneaking back the way he came as his clone split to join the other Gennin. He caught sight of Ibiki staring blankly at his paper as he ducked out of the crowd and down the hallway, smiling at himself. The guy better enjoy his vicious rendition of his future battle with Pein—with added special effects around the math problems and some pretty kick ass stick-figure fighting.

He was just about to reach the water closet his younger self was stashed into when he heard the clattering of Ibiki's boots rounding the corner into the hallway.

The blonde was about to sprint for it, when the faint sounds of lighter footsteps coming from the opposite direction met his ears.

Dammit.

As quick as soundlessly possible, Naruto flipped himself onto the ceiling, opened the vent and climbed his way in with the dust bunnies.

Just in time too, as Ibiki rounded the corner and so did—

Kakashi-sensei?

"Hatake." Ibiki greeted amiably, pausing in the hallway to nod at his fellow Jounin. "I thought you'd left already."

"I did." The Copy-nin agreed. "But I came back to ask you how it went."

"Interested, I see." Ibiki smirked wryly. "You must really like this team."

Kakashi shrugged. "Considering I failed all the other ones."

Naruto smiled. Typical Kakashi-sensei.

"And did they pass?" The ex-ANBU began without anymore preamble.

Ibiki gave him an amused look—probably at seeing such concern out of the generally impassive Jounin. "They did." He answered finally. "You've got quite a bunch there. I have to admit I'm impressed."

"It was Sasuke, wasn't it?" Kakashi sighed, though he seemed less exasperated and more expecting.

Ibiki shook his head. "Naruto, actually." He tapped the paper at the top of the pile in his arms. "Didn't answer a single question—only drew what seems to be some sort of battle."

"Really?" Kakashi peered over curiously. "Huh. Didn't get Kushina's artistic talent did he?"

A brief, glancing smile and the wide brim of blue-green eyes, fiery red hair and his gut clenched at the thought of his mother. At the thought of _seeing _his mother.

"I'd think not." Ibiki snorted. "At any rate, it's nice to see you caring over something, aside from rescuing old women's cats and helping strange people cross the street."

"Those are actual scenarios." Kakashi said seriously. "And they did actually happen."

Ibiki looked nonplussed. "I'm sure."

They parted ways at that, and Naruto gave them a couple seconds to fully clear the area before he dropped off the ceiling, bending his knees to quiet the impact before rushing to the water closet.

He dispelled the Genjutsu making it look like the rest of the wall and pried the lock open easily, revealing—

A still clearly knocked out younger version of himself.

"Fuck."

.

.

.

He was able to sneak back into the tide of Gennin easily enough, dispelling his clone when everyone was too focused on the enormous, looming trees of the Forest of Death, and not on the blonde who quickly reappeared behind his pink haired teammate.

"This is creepy…" Sakura mumbled next to him.

Naruto only narrowed his eyes at the crowd behind them, more interested in the restlessly shifting Kusa-nin then the gargantuan.

"You'll soon find out…" Anko smirked grimly. "Why it's called he Forest of Death."

Naruto remembered with stunning veracity how much those words had irritated him in the past. Funny how they still did. "Because a lot of shit dies in there?" He scoffed rhetorically.

"Spirit." Anko commented with a raised brow. "I like it."

This time, when Anko threw the kunai at him, he dodged under her swing, the Jounin obviously underestimating him and leaving herself outreached and completely open. He dove up, kunai to her throat.

Their eyes met, Anko's wide with surprise and his narrowed with grim satisfaction. "Kids like me—get killed pretty easy, right?"

Or that was what he'd told him anyway, six years ago.

Anko quickly snapped back into a shuttered scowl, turning as one of the Kusa-nin appeared behind her.

It was Naruto's eyes that widened this time, catching sight of Orochimaru's disguise and feeling white hot fury burn through him. He hadn't seen the sick Sannin the course of the first exam, though now he had a full view of the morbid disguise. The slick tongue holding out Anko's kunai.

"Here's your kunai." The man said, his snake-like appendage holding it out for her.

Anko gave him a burning smile. "Oh, why thank you." The pleasant undertone ruined by the angered visage of her face. "But try not to sneak up on me," And then, with a sultry look that held a certain amount of danger, she added, "Unless you want to die."

"No…" Orochimaru's rasp voice was defined further by the slow roll of his large tongue. "I just get excited when I see red blood. Plus you cut my precious hair; I just couldn't help it…"

It took everything he had to refrain from jumping at the snake with the largest Rasengan he could conjure. To think, he was exerting so much effort on _staying put. _A first for him.

"Looks like we have a lot of blood thirsty ones in this test." Anko noted with a tinged laugh. "Should be fun."

She turned to the assembled group. "Now, before we start the second test… there's something I have to pass out."

Naruto took his death certificate with churlish determination, making sure to keep his feet near glued to the ground, regardless of how every hair on his body stood on end at the mere thought of Orochimaru at his back. Everything in him was grossly wronged by such a feat, including his brain—which continued to war between a Jiraiya-like voice convincing him that inaction was the key to success, and the rest of him telling him to fuck it and just gut the guy.

By the time Anko had finished her long-winded spiel, indubitably meant to scare half of the kids here shitless, Naruto had duck a five inch hole with each foot into the dirt. There were small rocks in his sandals, but aside from that it seemed to work. While the impulse to take a run at the Sannin while he wasn't expecting it was causing his fingers to near spasm, he managed to make it to the gates without _really _fucking up the future as he knew it.

But the more he stood there, tracing the limbs of trees with his eyes and waiting for Anko to give them the go, the more he wondered if he even _wanted _the future the way it was. Though quite obviously he wasn't actually omniscient, and hadn't any idea what the outcome of the story he was winding through would be, he was acutely aware that half way through it everything just sort of sucked.

His best friend was well and truly his enemy, and before his untimely death Itachi had transparently hinted that Naruto may have to kill him, Danzou was undoubtedly going to screw Konoha for his own agenda, Madara was halfway to doing the same, and Naruto was absolutely positive that the Shinobi council was going to solve nothing.

And where did that leave him? Scrambling to find enough time to finish the work of his late mentor? To finish what could very well be the final mission Tsunade would ever give him? To save his fellow Jinchuuriki?

_Just one hit, _his mind whispered. The jugular, the heart, any main artery. _And everything would be different. _

No.

_No._

For all he knew, killing Orochimaru could set off a chain reaction resulting in Konoha not even _being there at all_ when he travelled back. Nothing but a decimated wasteland, and him the last of the once great Hidden Village. Just the mere thought was enough to spit him back into the real world with frank clarity.

The blonde open his eyes, this time nothing but determination lingering in their blue depths.

He could feel Sasuke's eyes curiously focused on him, as if subconsciously sensing the dynamic change in the blonde. The slow simmering confidence in contrast to the burning arrogance, the sharpness to his cheeks that hadn't been there and the way his eyes seemed to study the world with clearness.

"The Second Test of the Chuunin Exam.."

Naruto tensed, each muscle ready-spring as the locks shifted in the doors with an audible groan—

"Begins now!"

And leapt head first into the darkened forest.

* * *

_It's almost amusing to see how much my writing has changed. I certainly cuss a lot more throughout most of this, I also notice that when I curse in person, it generally follows a goddamn fucking (blank) pattern. Like, "This is some goddamn fucking shit." Or, "This is goddamn fucking crazy." This could be the shrooms, or it could just be the fact that I was thirteen when I started this crazy story. OH MY GOD. _

_Review before I sell my soul to the devil in exchange for _


	7. World Apart

_this story makes me feel like Naruto in a lot of ways. Never give up! haha_

* * *

_We're wasting our time. _Naruto thought, annoyed. Had it took this long to scavenge for food before? And, more importantly, why the hell didn't he think to bring a protein bar, or at least a soldier pill?

The blonde scoffed. This was the biggest pain in the ass he'd ever had to deal with. He'd already failed the Chuunin exams and had to retake them—doing it three times was just cruel and unusual punishment. It was _just _like him to get knocked out cold before any of the action started, and what, leaving his older self to take his place?

_I'm such a slacker! _The blonde thought irritably. _And not even intentionally!_

"Naruto," Sakura poked her head out from the shrubbery she was sifting through. "Are you going to just sit there all day, or are you going to help us?"

_It wouldn't make a difference. _

"Sakura-chan, I really don't think there's going to be anything edible around here. It _is _called the Forest of Death for a reason, most of the plants are poisonous." He pointed out, perhaps a little tactlessly.

"Oh is that so?" She stood then, hands on her hips. "And do you have any better ideas?"

"The map had a river in it." Naruto recalled. "We could fish for food."

Sakura pursed her lips, but Sasuke crawled out of a hollow tree with only a few crushed berries to show for it, and looked like for once he might agree with the him.

"I agree with the dobe. We'd probably have better luck there." He said, brushing off dirt and looking in Naruto's direction.

Naruto studiously avoided his gaze.

"And maybe we can run into another team and get their scroll!" Sakura clapped her hands excitedly, before rummaging through her pack for the map. "Ah, here we go. It says… hm… well we'd be right around here so—it's about two miles inward."

Forget the scrolls—_Orochimaru _was lurking around here somewhere, the sick bastard. Hell, he was probably jerking off in the trees to the very sight of Sasuke, as most people tended to do. Somewhere, deep down, he really had a slight bit of sympathy for the guy. His pristine, feminine looks will forever attract strange men to him…

Or incredibly _old _men.

Naruto shivered at the thought of Madara.

Unfortunately for Team Seven the road to the river was laden with other teams lying in ambush for their scroll. Well, ambush was a mild term. There really wasn't much ambushing to it when the blonde was aware of where they were before they had the chance to sneak up on the team. No, the difficult part was incapacitating them _without _Sasuke and Sakura realizing he was doing it. Purposefully, at least.

However, there were only so many times you could fake tripping over a log and unraveling a trap prematurely before your teammates caught on.

"How do you keep finding these, Naruto?" Sakura demanded suddenly, after the umpteenth time there was a 'rock' in his shoe and he hobbled over a trap wire.

He rubbed the back of his head, sheepishly. "What are you talking about, Sakura-chan?" He giggled nervously. "There's a really big rock in my shoe!"

She narrowed her eyes. "Is this your idea of a game? This isn't funny, you know. We're in the middle of an _exam _Naruto, stop messing around! How can you possible have a rock in your shoe so many ti—

Sasuke swiftly elbowed her in the rib, leaning close to whisper sharply into her ear, "_He's using it as a code for traps, Sakura._"

The pink-haired Gennin flushed. "Oh…"

Naruto couldn't hear them from his spot some feet ahead, and was watching the two converse with a narrow-eyed glare. What were they saying? He was too caught up with trying to make out what they were saying about him that he really did trip over a trap wire accidentally.

It wasn't is fault, though, this time there _really was _in his shoe.

Just not a rock.

Something was squishing beneath his bare toes. He screamed. "Jesus _fuck _what the fuck is that—

He hobbled, moved forward, and fell flat over the wire.

Fortunately his cursing was loud enough to alert Sakura and Sasuke, and when the Kumo-nin dropped from the trees the three of them took care of them quickly. They didn't have the scroll they were looking for, but it was an ambush navigated nonetheless.

Also, it turns out it was a frog.

"That is the most disgusting thing I've ever had die between my toes while I was fighting." Naruto muttered angrily, no longer in the mood to humor the fates and the gods with playing docile and nice through the Chuunin exams—not when he needed to get to that goddamn river and wash his feet out, immediately. He wasted no time dragging his teammates along, this time forgoing the ambushes completely and just going around them the moment he realized they were there.

His teammates followed some paces behind him through the bramble, bewildered but not complaining.

"What's with him?" Sakura frowned, whispering to her dark-haired companion. "He's being really…"

Well, _mature _would be the word she was looking for, but even then that might not be the most accurate description. Naruto almost seemed _bored, _with all of this. He certainly looked the part during the first exam, and while everyone else, even Sasuke, looked like they were going through the various stages of terror during Anko's introduction at the front gates, Naruto looked… well, he had looked angrier than she'd ever seen him. And not even at Anko! He'd been staring down some weird woman from Grass the whole time.

He hadn't really paid much attention to any of the exams!

And even now, he took out those Gennin like he'd been sleepwalking. She'd never even seen Sasuke move so fluently—a few swift hits to the joints, knocking them all out in rapid succession without wasting a single movement. So clinical, so…

_Professional._

Sasuke made a grunt which could have been taken as vague agreement, looking just as confused. Or at least she thought it was confusion that narrowed his eyes and thinned his lips. Maybe irritation. It was hard to say.

Naruto lead them quickly to the water, the sound of the rapids loud enough to hear long before they saw it. Luckily the river itself was devoid of other teams, no traps set up to deter or incapacitate them. He stood at the edge of the tree line for a moment, debating whether it would be a good idea to walk out in the open; he didn't remember being attacked at the river last time around, but they also hadn't made such good timing.

He turned to Sakura. "Would you know any Genjutsu to cover us?"

He immediately realized his mistake when she only stared at him blankly.

"Uh?" She blinked. "No?"

_I forgot how useless she was. _He balked to himself silently, before shaking his head, bringing his hand together. "Kage Bunshin!"

His clones sprung into the eaves of the trees and the bushes surrounding them. With a nod from him they dispersed in a radial fashion, moving to scout out the area for enemy-nin. It certainly wasn't the best of ways to clear out an area for them but he was truly at a loss for what else to do when they had such a limited repertoire of Jutsu to use—him especially, considering has of now his younger self only knew _two. _

"That should do it." He smiled to his team, bounding forward.

They followed cautiously, and it took him a moment to realize that their wariness was directed towards _him_.

He heaved a breath and put a supreme effort into acting like himself. "So… do either of you now how to fish?"

"Naruto." Sakura frowned, looking exasperated. "Where do you keep getting these ideas about us? When would we have learned _that_?"

He shrugged. Now that he thought of it… they hadn't really known what to do with themselves when they got to the river last time around either.

"Well, no time like the present to try right?"

In the end Sasuke managed to catch a trout—considering the amount of time it took though it was no great achievement. Better than Sakura and Naruto though, who floundered around in the shin-deep shallows attempting to catch the fish as they swam by. Sasuke had stood a little farther out, stalk still for the better part of a few hours, until finally he struck like lightning and grabbed out a floundering, terrified fish.

The still image struck Naruto painfully; the young Sasuke overlapped with the visage of a man much older, startlingly still against a portrait of lightning, crackling against his frame.

It wasn't much, but it was enough to tide them over and by sundown he ushered them over to the treetops, where they'd at least have some cover from the foliage and some distance from the prowling teams on the ground. Regardless, they spent the rest of the time until nightfall setting up traps around the surrounding trees—not to hinder like the ones they'd encountered earlier, but to warn them of trespassers.

Naruto settled in next to his teammates on their decided branch, sprawled between Sasuke and Sakura and staring up at the stars that dwindled in through the crossing branches. He wasn't relaxed; every nerve in him was lit with an anxiety that he'd only ever felt with anticipation. But he felt…

_Content._

It was nice to be between the two of them again. He couldn't recall the last time he'd been with both his teammates in a situation that didn't provide one of them attempting to bodily harm the other. Or at least, _he'd _never really tried to kill Sasuke—it was debatable whether the dark-haired boy had ever really tried to kill him. Was the closest he had come at the Valley of the End? Or in one of their more recent encounters? With the way he was in the present, it was difficult to tell…

For now though, he looked peaceful. Calm in his sleep, although the furrow to his brows bellied some sort of secret sorrow. Not for the first time he'd wished the other boy would tell him what was wrong—would confide in Naruto the way Naruto had always wanted to do with him.

He turned back to the canopy of stars above them.

_He wouldn't, though._

It just wasn't meant to be.

.

.

.

Kakashi hoisted the dark-haired boy over his shoulder, an almost unrecognizable figure of dirt and blood. Naruto's heart beat wildly in his chest, rampant against his ribs, a bird fighting for freedom against the cage of bone. He bit this lip right through—he already had twice, once when Orochimaru threw him and he stayed hidden in the bushes, waiting for time to repeat itself, and again when Sasuke looked him in the eye,

(_Are you scared, chicken?)_

And Naruto looked back, and_ knew_: he had condemned him to this fate.

That he would always condemn him to this fate; would do nothing to change it.

He'd never hated Jiraiya more than he did standing in the middle of that tower, cursing this _knowledge, _wondering how his life could have gone if he'd never meddled with time. He'd be naïve, he thinks, naïve and a little foolish. But it could have been worth it.

It _would have been worth it, _to save himself from this pain.

"Naruto?" Sakura whispered, turning to him.

His smile faltered; tapering off at the edges. "I'm fine, Sakura-chan. Are you okay?"

She nodded slowly, one hand rubbing slow, almost subconscious circles against her elbow, the other limp against the torn hems of her dress. "I guess so. Do you think Sasuke-kun…?"

He smiled again, laughed for her. "I'm sure he'll be fine, Sakura-chan! It's Sasuke-teme, anyway, of course he'll be okay. And Kakashi-sensei will take care of him."

Her lips quirked minutely at his words, a pleasant crinkle formed against the side of her eyes.

He wondered how many times he'd lie to Sakura in his lifetime.

.

.

.

"Yo,"

The boy grumbled in response, curling in on himself, cowering from the light.

"_Yo._" Naruto scuffed him lightly with the bottom of his foot. He stirred again, but didn't wake. "Kid, get up."

Finally he blinked, eyes opening sleepily to squint over at Naruto, crouched on the windowsill by the bed. "Furu-sensei?" He sat up straight, recognizing the familiar blonde perched at his window.

With that, he peered around, confusion knitting his brows. "Where am I?" He asked groggily, turning back to Naruto. "What happened?"

"You don't remember?" He asked in reply, neutral.

"No." His younger self blinked, eyes big and owlish. "Nothing at all. I think remember fighting Lee? Oh! That's because he kept asking for stupid Sasuke-teme, and what's so good about Sasuke-teme anyway, I'm like a thousand times better than him—where is he, anyway? I'm gonna punch him for that one—

"Sasuke's hurt." Furu cut him off; he almost had to look away, watching the color drain from Naruto's face, the visceral and genuine concern so obvious on his face.

"What?-!" He leapt up. "Where? Is he okay? What happened—man, I really can't remember anything!"

"You all were in really bad shape after the second exam." Furu explained calmly. "It's only natural you're having a hard time remembering; you probably wandered around for days with an untreated concussion."

And then, ominously, "It could be your mind protecting you from psychiatric stress."

Naruto harrumphed. "Well, I'd rather it let me remember—I hate not knowing."

_Do you, though?_

Furu shrugged. "Well, time will tell. You think you're up for seeing Sakura?"

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto perked up. "Really? She's here? Where?"

"Down the hall." He tipped his head towards the door. "You're in the forest tower; all of the passing contestants are. They're holding a meeting tomorrow for the next test, so don't forget—

But Naruto was already barreling out the door, hollering, "_Sakura-chan_!"

His older self remained on the window, a haunted expression to his face.

"Sakura!" Naruto sprinted down the hallway, peering into open rooms and barging into a lot of closed ones, startling a fair number of Gennin on his way.

He finally found her, not in any room at all, standing in a common room of sorts, morosely looking down out of a wide window. She turned at the clamor he was making, poorly veiled relief lighting her face.

"Stop being so noisy!" She admonished without heat, turning quickly to approach him. "We're not supposed to be drawing attention to ourselves, remember?"

"Who cares? The second exam is over anyway!" He blew a raspberry.

She frowned. "We still have the third, don't forget that." And, with a distant look, "And if it goes as bad as the second…"

"Why?" Naruto tilted his head. "What happened in the second?"

She froze, eyes widening. "You… _what?"_

"I can't remember."

"…_What_?"

He shrugged, rubbing at his hair. "I think I hit my head or something, because man, I can't remember a _thing_. I woke up a couple minutes ago feeling really crappy and Furu-sensei was there telling me the whole thing was over!"

"Moron!" Sakura cried, lunging at him, careful not to hit his head. "I asked you if you were okay!"

"I—you did? Sakura-chan, I really can't remember!"

"Oh god." She had him pinned to the ground, her anger suddenly crumpling into tears. "You have to be okay, Naruto… I can't… not _both _of you!"

"S—Sakura...?" His younger self floundered, clearly not adept with handling crying, emotional women—or for that matter, women in general. "Uh, it'll be okay?"

"_Shut up._"

"Okay."

"Naruto." The blonde craned his head, looking behind him to see Furu leaning against a wall.

"I'm heading out."

Naruto pouted, scampering out from under Sakura. "Really? So soon?"

Furu returned with a wan smile, "Afraid so. I've got a couple errands to run."

"No fair." Naruto whined. "You still have to teach me cool and awesome Jutsu!"

Furu laughed. "I've already tried, if I remember correctly."

"Yeah!" Naruto agreed. "I'm getting pretty good at that Katon Jutsu—it'll be perfect by the time the third exam starts!"

"I'm sure."

_Unlikely. _He thought, morbidly. Teaching his younger self a Jutsu was one thing—but mastering it was entirely another. Something told him that something like that was messing too much with time.

"Will you at least come to see me before the third round?" The young blonde questioned, tone pitching imploringly.

Furu sighed. "I'll try." He responded, noncommittally.

It'd be best to take his leave now, before his younger self really managed to wheedle more promises. He swooped down and headlocked the young blonde, rubbing his knuckles into his hair.

"Ouch—ouch—ouch—_watch the head_!" He sputtered, crossly. "I'm injured you know!"

"Take care of yourself." He commanded, and Naruto stopped struggling at the sternness of his voice. "And watch out for your teammates—and your sensei, and everyone that you love. You have to protect them."

Naruto remained unmoving in his grasp. Furu stopped the noogie, easing the headlock enough for Naruto to duck out of his grip.

"I know." He responded, surprisingly austere, standing tall in front of him. "Of course I will. That's my ninja way."

Furu blinked, taken aback a bit by the seriousness at which the young Gennin in front of him was taking his words. Not for the first time, he thought he could see a glimmer of what other people saw in him—in that grand, impressive, insurmountable _foolishness_.

Somehow, seeing such determination, such drive from such an unanticipated source was inspiring.

"Good." He breathed. "…Good."

.

.

.

He'd kept to Jiraiya's principles as much as he could—and where had it gotten him, really? The future remained a bleak, intangible smear ahead of him, a diffused portrait of war and death, mounted ominously in the forefront of his vision.

Again, he found himself cursing the old man.

He'd up and died and left Naruto with a half-made legacy, a lot of questions, and so few answers. And Naruto didn't even know the first place to start to search for them.

It's not like Naruto could retrace Jiraiya's steps, god knows where that pervert had been. Probably to every bathhouse that had ever existed in this world. Naruto snorted. And probably the next world over too, at this rate. The unfortunate part came to a head when Naruto realized that he couldn't think of any other place with significance for Jiraiya aside from Konoha, and at this rate, he'd tore up every place Jiraiya could have possibly left them, from this world—

"To the next." He breathed, blinking.

Fuck, he was stupid.

A few minutes and one reverse summoning later and he was literally tearing down the walls of Mount Myoboku, shouting loudly and waking up all the toads.

"Wha—" Gamakichi floundered behind him. "Boss—wait up! Hold on! What's the rush?"

"The rush?—" Naruto sputtered, before shaking his head. "Nevermind! Just get me to Ma and Pa, and hurry!"

He spun smartly on one foot and vaulted up into the air soon after that, leaving Gamakichi squawking indignantly in his wake. The infamous land of toads wasn't all that large, so it only took a few scant minutes for Naruto to locate the toads in question—though it could have been an infinity, for how long it seemed to take.

Ma and Pa were lounging on a basin of rock, sunning themselves in a way Naruto had never thought biologically comfortable for toads. To that end, he'd never thought toads could drink that much sake, either.

"Yo!" He greeted, dropping out of a jump in front of them and landing smoothly into a crouch, one arm raised in vague salute.

"Ah—" Ma blinked, adjusting her sunglasses. "Oh, Naruto-kun? How _are _you dear? Goodness it's been ages since we've seen you…"

"Is that Naruto-kun?" Pa grunted, rolling over to face them. "So it is! What brings you here Naruto-kun? Any news on the situation in Konoha?"

"Nothing good." Naruto sighed, shaking his head. "But that's not what I'm here for. Listen, you guys know Jiraiya… maybe better than anyone else. I know he was here a lot, but was there anywhere on Mount Myboku that was… special to him? Or more special than usual?"

And, to their blank faces.

"Or at least somewhere he visited frequently, that didn't involve naked women? Because I've been trying to think of one of those and I'm having a hard time believing right now that a place like that exists."

Pa chortled. "Does it?"

Ma scowled at him, before turning back to Naruto. "Well, honey, that's a tough question… he liked to roam around when he was here." She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "You know, he had a study here, if that might be useful—

"Yes!" Naruto yelped. "Yes, that's exactly it! Could you tell me where it is?"

She blinked, taken aback by his sudden enthusiasm, but pointed him in the right direction anyway.

It was exactly what Naruto was hoping for. An entire room devoted almost entirely to porn, with a minor alcove full of texts on sealing and jutsu. Just what he'd expect from the super pervert, Naruto shook his head fondly, moving to browse through the few books in the room not full of raunchy porn.

He didn't recognize most of it—there were a few passages on the Sage techniques, some on Jiraiya's attempts to modify the Rasengan—the majority of the text had more to do with categorizing current Jutsu of different hidden villages that, while interesting, ultimately didn't help Naruto's purpose.

He spent most of the afternoon on the dusty, decrepit and unused floor of Jiraiya's room, back to one of the mounds of paper and the ground around him scattered with books he'd already torn through. Nothing of great interest caught his eye, although he noticed that Jiraiya spent a great deal of time attempting to dissect his Orioke No Jutsu. Naruto prided himself on that; it _was _a fairly decent piece of work, wasn't it?

Naruto was finally about to call it quits, some time when the sun had long since maundered off the horizon, taking the last trails of dusk in hand. The stars shivered quietly beyond the confines of the mountain, the moon a lamenting figure bedecked in gossamer light. Ma had come in a little while ago to light an oil lamp for him, casting the room in a diffusion of almost foreboding light. Frankly, it was starting to hurt his eyes.

He stood to move for bed, yawning, one hand ruffling the hair at the back of his head. He moved to cover his mouth, and in the process knocked over an entire stack of papers.

"Oh hell," He scowled at himself, as white sheets of paper took to the air like fluttering paper birds all around him, fanning out so completely he almost thought someone out there was intentionally trying to piss him off. "Ma's gonna have a fit."

He sighed, moving to at least attempt to clean up the mess, when a notebook with "Time" caught his eye.

"Time. _Time._" He blinked, and then vaulted over towards it, therein ruining the room further. At this point he didn't care though, almost destroying the flimsy and worn parchment of the book in his enthusiasm.

At first, the pages were scrawled through with the relative theory Jiraiya had spent the first few months preaching at him. Naruto vaguely remembered most of it, scanning through it in a feverish manner. His heartbeat tripled when he finally got to more familiar pages; covered with symbols and runes that caught his eye, some of which he even knew by muscle memory.

But the familiarity of the book was lost after that.

Naruto was stunned to find that he actually _didn't _know most of this.

Which was odd, considering he had a great deal in the hand of their time traveling of them he made himself, with little or no input from Jiraiya at all. Sure, it was a little flawed, and crooked, and only worked with an almost suicidal amount of chakra and a lot of luck, but the fact of the matter was that he'd made a working time travelling jutsu with _his own two hands _and had gotten to use it out of just theoretical practice.

Suddenly though, he was beginning to understand why Jiriaya had been so proud of him for making it.

Because Naruto had made his time travelling scroll by himself.

And Jiraiya hadn't expected him to be able to do it.

Because he had one of his own.

"But… why?" Naruto whispered aloud, stunned. Why make Naruto go through the trouble of making his own? Or at the very least, why not at least offer more concrete advice than the bullshit theoretical crap he'd doled out to the blonde like candy?

It didn't make any sense. The more Naruto flipped through this book… the better he got acquainted with the intricate design Jiraiya had come up with and its abilities, the more he realized how _flawed _his own was. He'd come up with the seal as a sort of rocket launcher into the unknown—a powerful source of energy with no real means of aim. He'd then had to come up with a second seal that would act as a homing beacon, and at least give his jumping seal an attempted range and time frame instead of just letting it stab into the dark. It'd taken him _ages_ to hone the tracking seal into a range of a few days—and yet, here was a completely flawless seal that worked as a jump _and _anchor, simply by changing a set of coordinate seals.

Jiraiya's seal… Jiraiya's seal was _perfection._

Naruto marveled at the man's genius: using a double set of coordinate seals, the user could set an exact time to jump into—a one way ticket of sorts. And instead of having to constantly rely on a tracking seal on both ends, the traveller only had to memorize a set of time 'coordinates' to get home—to get back to the exact day and hour of any certain moment in time.

It was… amazing, quite frankly.

Jiraiya's seal was even capable of permanent usage. If Naruto wanted, he could create a seal that, when activated, would always bring him back to a certain period of time. Naruto reread that passage at least four times, taken aback by the sheer brilliance of it. Jiraiya was truly the master of sealing—it humbled Naruto, honestly. Made him remember how little he really knew, how much of a novice he truly was. He studied the design with great reverence; how long did it take the man to make this?

He must have spent _years _honing his craft. Decades.

It gave Naruto pause.

Why?

Why expend so much effort on a theoretical subject most believed impossible? Even Naruto hadn't given such a vested interest into time travel, aside from the novelty of it. Mostly he'd been meaning to impress Jiraiya with something as monumental as time travel when he'd made his seals, rather than any legitimate interest in the cause.

But Jiraiya… it was quite possible that Jiraiya was more heavily invested in this than he was in porn—which said a lot, quite frankly. For there were few things in this world which could tear Jiraiya away from women that didn't indirectly have to do with women themselves. Really, Naruto could probably count them on hand. There was Tsunade—although maybe that didn't count, considering how much interest Jiraiya had in her breasts—Konoha, Naruto himself, Naruto's father, and his (non-pornographic) literature, sparse as it was.

Naruto blinked.

His literature.

His _book._

Naruto's book.

The blonde backtracked through the pages, skimming down until he once more got to the detailed drawing of Jiraiya's seal. He grabbed blindly for another sheet of paper, jotting down the line of seals which detailed the time coordinates for the jump. After, he flipped back to the cipher in the front, decoding through the lines of brush strokes.

Finally, once he'd finished lining the dates up, he sat back and blinked.

It was… a date of absolutely no significance to him at all.

Huh. He deflated.

He'd thought…

He'd read his namesake book so often he'd memorized most of it, even the ending. Jiraiya had penned a brief and vague homage to the real 'Naruto', and all the heroes in the story. He'd even listed the date in which he'd first thought on writing the story—the date he'd left them.

And this wasn't it.

Naruto stood then, ignoring the cramp in his legs from sitting in the same position, and opened the door to the study.

"Ma?" He called. "Pa?"

A quick look to his watch told him the world around his was probably dead asleep. The lamp Ma had left was left on its last few drops of oil.

His eyes caught on a drawing on the wall.

Now that he'd effectively ruined the piles and piles of paper that Ma no doubt laboriously stacked into some attempt at orderliness, the walls were laid bare to his perusing eyes. Jiraiya clearly had no personal regard for the walls and furnishings, because he'd taken a pen to almost every surface in the room, scrawling unintelligible notes—and in some cases, really lewd depictions of compromising positions—all over the room. Even on the ceiling. But this one caught Naruto's eye. It looked as if he'd expended the effort of wiping off his prior work to make room for it. It also looked a lot like…

Naruto ducked back down for the book he'd left on the floor, flipping briskly through the pages.

It looked a lot like the seal he'd drawn.

Without a second thought, Naruto turned the book back to Jiraiya's detailed instructions on the actual act of the Jutsu. He carefully memorized the handseals, and then tucked the book in his pocket.

He ran through them as sedately as possible, gathering the right amount of chakra into his fingers (which was a laughably smaller amount than what he was used to when jumping) and took a deep breath.

He then rammed both hands into the seal.

And disappeared without a sound.

.

.

.

It was definitely… a different experience to time travel than what he was used to.

The earth didn't shake, the very heart of his soul didn't seem to quiver with the effort—it didn't feel like he'd hacked up a long or two on the way over. No incredibly drop of gravity knocking the wind out of him, no dazed headaches.

It was almost a little anticlimactic.

He squinted into the blinding light, regaining his footing.

The world looked like a barren fixture of dirt and dust, a bright, but cold sun towered oppressively over the cowering surroundings. Little existed in this world but caked mud and the distant sound of crows and scavengers.

It looked like death.

His eyes first caught on the ground; around his feet were similar markings in disfiguration and size. He certainly wasn't a tracker, but he didn't have to be Kiba to know these were footsteps. The exact same footsteps, actually; paced about and weathered through time and environment through a lot of dedication, enough that it almost seemed to be patterned into the rock.

To his left was—

A very similar looking seal.

Upon further inspection, only one line of characters was different than the one on Jiraiya's wall, and Naruto had a sinking suspicion as to what it was. He checked with the book just in case, but his suspicions were proved accurate—it was the time coordinates for, 'the present'. An ambiguous and difficult algorithm of seals which calculated the time of jump and movement of time to accurately pinpoint 'the present' in which a jumper comes from.

Now Naruto wasn't a genius and had no idea how Jiraiya had managed a seal that could do that, but he did know one thing—

It was obvious Jiraiya came here a lot.

But why?

He squinted into the distance, wondering what it could be about this desolate land that had Jiraiya fixate on it so fervently that he'd go out of his way to mark it. The seal sat upon a large rock face jutting out of a cliff with a moderate view of the surrounding area. The view in and of itself was nothing substantial; certainly nothing caught Naruto's eye. The land and sky were mottled into an almost indiscernible shade of muddy gray, the horizon so far the two blended into an amalgamation of not-earth and not-sky.

He debated how long he should really stay to wait here, when fortunately it seemed Jiraiya wouldn't keep him waiting for all that long.

Three figures emerged from a distant alcove of rock, staggering out of a ravine of dirt and trailing blood in their wake. Naruto could barely make out much from this distance, a pair of nondescript limbs and gangly legs, lumbering through the wasteland. Two were holding one up between them, crossing the clearing in a laborious process that would take hours. From the trail of blood they left as they staggered along, Naruto reasoned that the injured one wouldn't have all that long left to live.

The blonde's gaze snapped to the opposite side of the ravine, where another figure had appeared in a cloud of smoke.

He jogged over, dropping in front of the trio and taking the injured one off their hands. Clearly exhausted, the other two dropped to their knees soon thereafter.

The four conversed, too far for Naruto to make out anything but vague gestures.

He knew enough though—knew that gait, that jump, that long mane of hair.

That was Jiraiya, coming to their aide.

And those three…

Naruto swallowed.

_Nagoto._

He didn't know what words were exchanged; didn't know what it was about this particular fragment of time that had Jiraiya coming back to it, over and over again, but he felt as if he didn't need to. It already felt like an incredibly invasion of his teacher's privacy, just standing here as a witness to an intimate moment that Jiraiya most likely never wanted anyone else to see.

The blonde turned away, compelled by an urge unintelligible to him yet still integral to his very core to give Jiraiya this moment; to let him take this one secret to the grave.

He scowled fiercely, hands unclenching and clenching at his sides. In the corner of his eye a scene, a scintillating memory, lingered in the distance. Konan, Nagoto, and Yahiko, immortalized in this one moment in time, still so naïve and innocent—still so _corruptible._

He closed his eyes, face contorted in anger and fear and _remorse. _He shook with a fervor he couldn't control, standing on this rock, having never felt so lost. So overwhelmed. Lamenting the inevitable.

He stayed until the dispassionate sun rose to its finale, glaring down at him with a grand and immoral impassivity for him and all the creatures who walked this earth. Jiraiya, Konan, Nagoto and Yahiko were long gone.

Finally, he plunged his hands into the seal, and disappeared without a trace.


End file.
